Moses  Drury  Hoge. 


'Jyi^'y^S^oM.  (/ 


<--"iM/^^  'Sr/trpL. 


'/ 


Moses  Drury  Hoge 


Life  and  Letters. 


By  his  Nephew, 


PEYTON  HARRISON  HOGE. 


K^ 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


RICHMOND,  VA.: 

Presbyterian  Committee  of  Publication. 


Copyrighted,  1899, 


JAS.  K.  HAZEN,  Secretary  of  Publication. 


Printed  by 

Whittet  &  Shepperson, 
Richmond,  Va. 


Bound  by 

Weymouth,  Meister  &  Smethie, 

Richmond,  Va. 


TO  THE 

€ongreaation  of  m  Secona  PresDytcrian  Cburcb, 
Ricbtttond,  \}n„ 

WHICH 

FOR  FIFTY-FOUR  YEARS, 

WITH  EVER  CHANGING  MEMBERSHIP, 

BUT 

WITH  UNCHANGING  DEVOTION, 

SHARED  THE  LABORS  AND  REWARDS  OF  THIS  EVENTFUL  MINISTRY. 


PREFACE. 


There  was  a  very  general  impression  after  Dr.  Hoge's 
death,  and  the  statement  was  frequently  made  in  the  public 
press,  that  he  had  left  in  manuscript  a  volume  of  reminiscences 
which  only  needed  editing  to  be  given  to  the  public.  Unfor- 
tunately such  was  not  the  case.  While  he  had  frequently 
been  importuned  to  prepare  such  a  volume,  and  had  fully 
purposed  to  do  so,  in  the  pressure  of  other  duties  he  had 
never  even  commenced  it,  and  left  not  a  line  of  autobiography 
or  personal  reminiscence  except  his  published  Memorial 
Address.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  gather  up  the  mate- 
rials of  this  biography  from  family  letters  and  records,  from 
his  own  correspondence,  extending  through  over  sixty  years, 
from  contemporary  newspaper  reports  and  church  records, 
and  from  the  personal  knowledge  of  his  family  and  friends. 
Fortunately  some  of  those  to  whom  he  wrote  most  freely, 
recognizing  the  value  of  his  letters,  had  carefully  preserved 
them,  while  it  was  the  custom  of  some  of  his  friends,  and 
later  of  his  daughter,  to  preserve  newspaper  notices  of  his 
work.  From  this  mass  of  material  I  have  endeavored  to 
select  what  would  best  illustrate  the  life  I  sought  to  present, 
and  the  times  in  which  that  life  was  lived;  endeavoring  to 
keep  in  mind — however  imperfectly  I  have  succeeded — 
the  words  of  Emerson,  that  "all  public  facts  are  to  be  indi- 
vidualized, and  all  private  facts  are  to  be  generalized.  Thus, 
at  once.  History  becomes  fluid  and  true,  and  Biography 
deep  and  sublime."  ■ 

In  discussing  Dr.  Hoge's  part  in  the  civil  war  and  the 
related  controversies,  fidelity  to  my  subject  required  that  I 
should  present  as  correctly  and  adequately  as  possible  the 
point  of  view  of  that  time;  while  the  same  fidelity  to  his 


vi  Preface. 

whole  subsequent  course  required  that  in  so  doing  I  should 
avoid  awakening  past  animosities,  and  should  study  the 
things  that  make  for  peace. 

Besides  the  members  of  Dr.  Hoge's  immediate  family,  who 
have  given  me  the  heartiest  cooperation  in  my  work,  I  de- 
sire to  make  my  acknowledgments  to  Governor  J.  Hoge 
Tyler  and  Major  Thomas  C.  Hoge  for  important  genealogi- 
cal data ;  to  my  honored  preceptor.  Dr.  W.  Gordon  McCabe, 
for  directing  my  attention  to  the  valuable  work  on  the  Haigs 
of  Bemerside;  to  the  editors  of  the  Richmond  Dispatch, 
Richmond  ^imes  and  Central  Presbyterian  for  access  to  their 
files,  and  for  other  courtesies;  to  the  Stated  Clerks  of  the 
Synods  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  the  Secretaries  of 
the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society  and  of  Hampden-Sidney 
College,  and  the  Librarian  of  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
for  use  of,  and  information  from,  the  records  in  their  hands. 

Special  mention  is  due  to  my  brother.  Professor  Addison 
Hogue,  for  his  painstaking  care  in  reading  the  proof-sheets 
and  for  many  valuable  suggestions. 

It  is  with  peculiarly  tender  and  grateful  emotions  that  I 
refer,  in  completing  this  work,  to  him  with  whom  it  was  first 
commenced — the  late  William  Sterling  Lacy.  Nearly  ten 
years  ago  we  planned  it  together,  and  the  lines  on  which  it 
was  then  projected  have  been  practically  followed  in  its 
execution.  It  was  then  proposed  to  prepare  it  jointly,  and 
when  this  was  found  impracticable  I  hoped  that  I  would 
at  least  have  the  benefit  of  his  exquisite  taste  and  rare  literary 
skill  before  giving  it  to  the  public.  But  even  this  was  ren- 
dered impossible  by  his  failing  health,  and  just  when  its  last 
pages  were  given  to  the  printers  he  finished  his  course,  and 
his  tender,  gracious  spirit  went  to  meet  his  God. 

It  only  remains  to  add  that  I  have  no  pecuniary  interest  in 
the  book,  but  that  it  has  been  throughout  a  labor  of  love. 

Louisville,  Ky.,  Nov.  20,  iSgg.  P-  H.  H. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I.  Page. 

Ancestry, ' 

CHAPTER  II. 
Birth  and  Boyhood,    .         .         ...         .         .      *  .       21 

CHAPTER  III. 
Student  Days, 38 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Preparation  for  the  Ministry,         .         .         .         .61 

CHAPTER  V. 
Early  Ministry, 76 

CHAPTER  VI. 
In  Full  Service, 103 

CHAPTER  VII. 
At  the  Confederate  Capital,  .         .         .         .         -134 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Mission  to  England,  .......     168 

CHAPTER  IX. 
William  James  Hoge, 198 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Valley  of  the  Shadow, 230 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Broader  Fields, 260 


viii  Contents. 

CHAPTER    XII.  Page. 

In  Labors  more  Abundant,         .....     301 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  Anniversaries,    .......     331 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Closing  Years,  367 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Character  and  Work 398 


APPENDIX. 

I.  Oration. — At  the  Unveiling  of  the  Statue  of  Stonewall  Jack- 
son, in  the  Capitol  Square,  Richmond,  Va.,  October  26, 1876,     425 
II.  Address. — At  the  Mass-Meeting  in  the  Capitol  Square,  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  after  the  Assassination  of  President  Garfield, 
July  5,  1S81, 448 

III.  Family  Religion. — An  Address  Before  the  Evangelical  Alli- 

ance, in  Copenhagen, 452 

IV.  The  Private  Soldier. — An  Address  before  the  Mass-Meeting 

held  in  the  Interest  of  the  Monument  on  Libby  Hill,  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  November  30,  1892, 456 

V.  Address. — In  the  Second  Presbyterian    Church,   Richmond, 

Va.,  December  11,  1889,  the  day  appointed  by  the  Governor 
for  the  Commemoration  of  the  Death  of  Hon.  Jefferson 
Davis, 463 

VI.  Memorial  Address. — On  his  Fiftieth  Anniversary,  in  the  Sec- 

ond Presbyterian  Church,  Richmond,  Va.,  February  27,  iSgs,     471 

PRAYERS. 

At  the  Memorial  Mass-meeting  in  the  Capitol  Square  after  the 

"  Capitol  Disaster,"  April  29,  1870, 492 

At  the  Re-interment  of  Confederate  Soldiers  in  Hollywood,  May 

29,  1S73 494 

At  the  Unveiling  of  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument,  Libby 

Hill,  May  30,  1894, 495 


Contents.  ix 

Page. 

At  the  Re-interment  of  President  Davis,  May  30.  1S93,    .         .         .  496 

At  the  Dedication  of  the  Confederate  Museum,  February  22,  iSq6,  498 

Memorial  Day,  Hollywood,  May  30,  1S9S, 499 

On  Opening  the  State  Democratic  Convention,  iSSg,       .         .         .  501 
On  Opening  the  Session  of  the  House  of  Delegates,  December  4, 

1891 502 

At  the  Inauguration  of  Governor  J.  Hoge  Tyler,  January  i,  1898,  502 
On  the  Opening  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railway,  Greeting 
the  Arrival  of  the  First  Through   Freight  from  the  Ohio  to 

the  James,  February  13,  1S73, 504 

At  the  Dedication  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  Building.  Decem- 
ber 28,  1S93 505 

At  the  Dedication  of  the  New  City  Hall,  February  16,  1894,  .         .  5of> 
At  the  Commencemen-t  of  the   University  College  of   Medicine, 

May  26,  1898, 507 

At  the  Administration  of  the  Bread  at  the  last  Joint  Communion 
Service  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of 'Richmond  During 

his  Life,  January  2,  1898,     . 508 

Index,        .........  511 


"Among  the  great  gifts  that  God  has  given  to  men  is  the  gift  of 
men ;  and  among  all  the  gifts  with  which  God  has  enriched  His  church, 
one  of  the  greatest  has  been  the  gift  of  consecrated  men,  for  they  are 
the  instrumentalities  by  which  the  church  has  been  moulded  and  guided 
and  prospered  in  all  the  generations  of  the  world."— Moses  Drury 
HoGE,  Sermon  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Broadus. 


Moses  drury  Hoge. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Ancestry. 


"A  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits;  and  a  noble  house  by  a  noble  man." — 
Arabic  Proverb. 

THERE  is  a  pride  of  ancestry  as  foolish  as  it  is  false. 
When  a  noble  name  is  borne  by  an  ignoble  man  it  only 
serves  to  make  its  owner  contemptible.  But  there  is  a  pride 
of  ancestry  that  awakens  responsibility ;  that  stimulates  en- 
deavor; that  purifies  motive  and  shapes  the  life  to  noble 
ends.  Consciousness  of  whence  we  are  may  largely  de- 
termine what  we  are.  But  apart  from  conscious  influence, 
is  not  the  Whence  a  true  cause  of  the  What?  Great  men 
often  arise  from  very  obscure  origin.  But  the  historian  and 
biographer  are  never  satisfied  until  they  have  traced  back  the 
extraordinary  qualities  of  their  hero  to  a  source  that  is  none 
the  less  real  because  it  is  obscure.  It  takes  many  streams  to 
make  the  river,  and  the  virtues  of  many  lowly  men  and 
women  struck  together  in  happy  combination  "to  give  the 
world  assurance  of  a  man."  When  the  streams  are  on  the 
surface,  and  the  same  qualities  can  be  traced  for  generations, 
our  task  is  plainer  and  our  reward  surer.  And  when  natural 
virtues  are  exalted  by  divine  grace,  we  can  rejoice  not  only 
in  the  fixedness  of  Nature's  laws,  but — what  is  far  better — 
the  sureness  of  the  covenant  promises  of  God. 

The  oldest  reference  to  the  name  of  Hoge  with  which  we 
have  met  is  in  1425,  when  "Patrick  Hoge  and  Gilbert  Hoge, 
Squiris,"  are  named  among  the  gentlemen  who  "devydit  the 


2  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Marches  betwixt  Ridbeth  and  Bemersyde."  Sir  Andrew 
Haig,  the  Laird  of  Bemersyde,  preceding  the  Laird  in  whose 
time  this  division  was  made,  had  been  the  first  to  drop  the 
spelhng  de  Haga  for  the  spelHng  Haig,  which  is  still  in  use. 
Etymologically  the  names  are  the  same,  and  the  finding  of 
them  in  the  same  neighborhood  suggests  the  probability  that 
Hoge  is  only  another  variant  of  Haga  or  Hage,  and  that 
the  Hoges  as  well  as  the  Haigs  are  descended  from  Petrus  de 
Haga,  who  came  from  Normandy  about  1150.  This  Peter 
of  the  Dyke — probably  from  Cape  de  la  Hague  in  Normandy 
— founded  an  honorable  family,  early  associated  with  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  patriotism.    For — 

"  When  Wallace  came  to  Gladswood  cross, 
Haig  of  Bemersyde  met  him  with  many  good  horse." 

And  before  the  battle  of  Stirling  the  Laird  of  Bemersyde 
was  reassured  by  his  friend  "Thomas  the  Rhymer"  with  the 
prophecy  which  still  holds  good — 

"  Tyde  what  may  betyde, 
Haig  shall  be  Haig  of  Bemersyde." 

Or,  as  Sir  Walter  puts  it — who  derived  his  right  to  be  buried 
in  Dryburgh  Abbey  from  his  descent  from  the  Haigs — 

"  Tide,  betide,  whate'er  betide, 
Haig  shall  be  Haig  of  Bemersyde." 

The  Humes,  with  whom  we  shall  later  find  the  Hoges 
associated,  were  also  a  Berwickshire  family,  and  much  as- 
sociated with  the  Haigs  of  Bemersyde. 

A  beautifully  engrossed  book,  containing  the  family  his- 
tory and  coat-of-arms,  remained  in  possession  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania branch  of  the  Hoge  family  in  this  country  within 
the  memory  of  those  still  living,  but  cannot  now  be  found. 
In  the  absence  of  the  written  evidence,  we  will  not  give  the 
interesting  details  that  are  recalled  by  some  who  were  more 
or  less  familiar  with  its  contents,  but  will  confine  ourselves 
to  the  well-established  story  of  the  founder  of  the  family  in 
this  country. 


Ancestry.  3 

About  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  a  young  man 
named  WilHam  Hoge — evidently  in  good  circumstances — 
came  to  America  on  account  of  the  religious  persecutions 
under  the  Stuarts.  In  the  same  ship  was  a  family  named 
Hume — father,  mother  and  daughter,  Barbara  by  name. 
Hume  was  one  of  two  brothers,  men  of  wealth  and  standing, 
who  differed  on  the  great  question  of  the  day.  One  of  the 
brothers  "conformed" ;  the  other  was  true  to  the  Kirk  and 
covenant.  He  was  imprisoned  and  most  of  his  property  con- 
fiscated, but  through  the  influence  of  his  brother  was  released 
on  condition  of  his  emigrating  to  America.  During  the  long 
voyage  a  pestilence  broke  out  in  the  overcrowded  ship,  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hume  were  among  the  victims.  Barbara  was 
left  alone,  and  William  Hoge  became  her  protector.  He 
delivered  her  and  her  property  into  the  hands  of  an  uncle — 
a  physician  named  Johnson — who  was  already  in  New  York, 
while  he  went  to  Perth- Amboy  to  make  himself  a  home. 
But  it  was  not  a  final  farewell.  An  attachment  had  sprung 
up  between  them,  and  in  due  time  he  returned  to  make  her 
his  wife. 

William  Hoge  removed  from  Perth-Amboy  to  Delaware, 
and  then  to  the  Cumberland  Valley,  in  Pennsylvania.  Here 
his  eldest  son  John  remained,  founding  the  village  of  Hoge- 
town.  In  the  church  founded  by  him  in  1734,  there  still  exist 
an  old  communion  service  of  hammered  pewter  and  a  pulpit 
Bible — the  gifts  of  members  of  his  family.  From  him  is 
sprung  a  branch  of  the  family  scattered  from  New  York  to 
California,  but  chiefly  found  in  Pennsylvania ;  men  of  sub- 
stance and  character ;  bankers,  lawyers,  judges,  members  of 
Congress,  with  now  and  then  a  minister  of  the  gospel; 
leaders  in  church  and  state. ^ 

*  He  married  a  Welsh  heiress,  Gwenthelen  Bowen  Davis.  His  son, 
David,  through  a  treaty  with  the  Indian  Chief  Catfish,  purchased  ahnost 
the  whole  of  what  is  now  Washington  county,  and  with  his  nephew, 
David  Redick,  afterwards  vice-president  of  Pennsylvania,  laid  off  the 
town  of  Catfish,  now  Washington.     His  sons,  John  and  WilHam,  were 


4  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

But  William  Hoge  found  not  here  his  resting  place. 
About  1735,  though  advanced  in  years,  he  removed  to  Fred- 
erick county,  Va.,  on  the  Opequon  branch  of  the  Potomac. 
Here  he  made  his  home.  Here  he  gave  land  for  church  and 
school  and  burying  ground — the  old  Opequon  Church — the 
first  place  of  worship  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  Its  first 
regular  minister  was  his  grandson,  the  Rev.  John  Hoge, 
son  of  his  oldest  son  John.  He  came  fresh  from  Nassau 
Hall,  where  he  graduated  in  the  first  class  sent  out  by  that 
venerable  institution.  After  a  useful  ministry  in  Virginia, 
he  returned  to  Pennsylvania.  While  pastor  at  Opequon  he 
received  a  visit  from  the  Rev.  Hugh  McAden,  on  his  way 
to  his  pioneer  mission  in  North  Carolina,  where  now  ^  a 
great-great-great-grandson  of  William  Hoge  preaches  to  the 
great-great-grandchildren  of  Hugh  McAden.  There  are 
still  some  things  fixed  in  this  changing  world,  and  more 
changeful  land. 

William  Hoge  lived  full  ninety  years.  He  saw  his  children 
and  grandchildren  serving  God  and  their  generation;  the 
honest.  God-fearing  makers  of  a  new  world.  God  made  him 
forget  all  his  toil  and  all  his  father's  house.  He  sleeps  in 
the  old  Opequon  church-yard. 

The  old  church  lived  on  for  generations.  Three  succes- 
sive buildings  arose  on  the  spot,  and  its  sons  and  daughters 
went  forth  into  many  States,  though  many  sleep  around  it. 
At  length  it  was  outgrown,  and  in  time  superseded,  by  the 
daughter  church  of  Winchester.  But  recently  the  crumbling 
stones  have  been  built  anew ;  a  memorial  of  the  worthy 
dead. 

both  members  of  Congress.  Another  son,  David,  was  the  first  receiver 
of  the  United  States  Land  Office,  w^ith  headquarters  at  Steubenville, 
Ohio.  Justice  Shiras,  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  is  a  de- 
scendant of  one  of  his  daughters.  William  and  Thomas  Scott  Hoge,  of 
the  long-closed  banking  house  of  William  Hoge  and  Company,  New 
York,  were  sons  of  David  Hoge,  of  Steubenville.  These  are  but  a  few 
representative  names. 

'  Written  before  his  recent  removal. 


Ancestry.  5 

John  was  the  only  one  of  WilHam  Hoge's  sons  who  set- 
tled in  Pennsylvania.  The  others  moved  with  their  father 
to  Virginia;  William,  who  married  a  Quakeress  and  joined 
the  sect,  leaving  many  descendants ;  George,  who  removed 
to  the  South;  James,  of  whom  we  shall  have  more  to 
say;  and  Alexander,  who  was  a  member  of  the  First  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  Virginia  convention 
that  ratified  the  Constitution. 

Our  concern  is  with  the  fourth  son,  James ;  and  of  him  we 
know  more ;  a  man  of  robust  intellect  and  a  self-taught  the- 
ologian. Dr.  Archibald  Alexander,  when  a  young  licen- 
tiate, visited  him,  and  was  impressed  with  the  vigor  of  his 
mind  and  the  clearness  of  his  views  even  in  old  age.  In  early 
life  he  satisfied  himself  of  the  scripturalness  of  every  state- 
ment of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  and  when  the 
"Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia"  introduced  certain 
changes,  he  withdrew  from  its  communion  and  united 
with  the  Scotch  secession.  Twice  a  year  he  went  to  a 
church  in  Pennsylvania  to  participate  in  the  communion. 
Late  in  life  his  scruples  were  removed,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  his  son.  He  died  June  2,  1795,  at  an  advanced 
age. 

James  Hoge  was  twice  married,  and  had  many  children. 
We  need  name  but  two,  James  and  Moses. 

James,  a  son  of  his  first  wife,  Agnes,  left  home  in  search 
of  his  brother  John,  who  was  supposed  to  have  joined  Brad- 
dock's  army  and  to  have  been  killed  at  Fort  DuQuesne.  He 
did  not  find  his  brother,  but  he  found  a  home  and  a  wife,  and 
settled  in  Pulaski  county.  His  homestead  is  now  the  home 
of  his  great-grandson,  the  Honorable  J.  Hoge  Tyler,  the 
present  Governor  of  Virginia.  His  son  was  General  James 
Hoge,^  a  man  of  fine  intellect  and  one  of  the  handsomest  men 
in  the  State.    His  son,  Daniel  Hoge,  was  elected  to  Congress 

^  This  branch  of  the  family  seems  to  have  been  the  fighting  stock. 
Brigadier-General  Funston,  who  has  distinguished  himself  in  the  Philip- 
pines, is  a  great-grandson  of  General  Hoge. 


6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

in  1865,  and  was  a  brilliant  and  popular  speaker.  The  de- 
scendants of  James  Hoge,  of  Pulaski,  have  not  only  been 
prominent  in  the  State,  but  many  of  them  have  been  influ- 
ential as  ruling-  elders  in  the  councils  of  the  church.  They 
have  kept  in  close  intimacy  with  the  descendants  of  the  other 
son  of  James  Hoge,  of  Frederick,  of  whom  we  must  speak  at 
more  length. 

Moses  Hoge  was  the  ninth  son  of  his  father,  and  the 
fourth  son  of  his  mother,  Nancy  Griffiths.  He  was  born  at 
Cedar  Grove — his  father's  home  in  Frederick — February  15, 
1752.  His  mother  is  described  as  of  "respectable  understand- 
ing and  sincere  piety,"  but  his  remarkable  endowments  seem 
to  have  come  from  his  father.  Saint,  scholar  and  preacher, 
it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  gifts  or  graces  were  most  pre- 
eminent. His  intellect  grasped  the  Calvinistic  system  in  its 
entirety  before  he  had  even  an  academic  education ;  his  heart 
was  so  tender  that  he  wept — so  his  students  said — over  the 
fate  of  the  devils,  to  whom  no  mercy  was  offered.  Of  his 
own  experience  he  said  that  he  had  never  known  the  time 
when  he  had  not  loved  the  Lord;  yet  he  never  knew  the 
time  when  he  thought  he  loved  him  as  he  ought.  His  piety 
was  of  that  old-fashioned  Brainerd  type,  that  wept  in  secret 
over  imperfections  that  no  one  else  discovered,  and  agonized 
in  prayer  over  the  souls  committed  to  his  charge;  all  of 
which  we  may  see  from  his  journal.  From  devotions  like 
these  he  went  into  his  pulpit,  and  men  trembled  and  prayed 
and  believed  at  his  word.  There  might  be  more  of  such 
praying  and  such  preaching  now;  to  the  advantage  of  our 
times. 

Nobody  reads  now  his  "Strictures  on  a  Pamphlet  by  the 
Rev.  Jeremiah  Walker  Entitled  the  Fourfold  Foundation 
of  Calvinism  Examined  and  Shaken;"  but  it  is  the  testi- 
mony of  no  less  an  authority  than  the  late  Dr.  Dabney, 
that  it  was  he  who  impressed  upon  the  Virginia  ministry  that 
moderate  type  of  evangelical  Calvinism  that  has  ever  since 
distinguished  it ;  and  Archibald  Alexander  was  in  his  youth 


o^o'd^  ^(sgx. 


Ancestry,  7 

indebted  to  him  for  correcter  views  of  divine  grace  in  regen- 
eration f^  thus  Princeton  felt  his  impress,  and  his  Hne  went 
out  into  all  the  earth.     His  Sophist  Unmasked,  a  reply  to 
Payne,  no  longer  meets  the  attacks  of  infidelity;  but  his 
preaching,  and  his  teaching,  and  his  life,  did  much  to  stem  the 
tide  of  Atheism  and  of  "French  infidelity"  in  his  day.     Five 
years  of  missionary  work  in  Hampshire  county;  twenty 
years  laboring  for  souls  in  Shepherdstown,  whose  church  he 
founded;    thirteen  years  preaching  and  teaching  and  pre- 
paring men  for  the  ministry  at  Hampden-Sidney— this  was 
the  brief  measure  of  his  life-work.     For  he  lived  not  long, 
and  he  began  late.     Pie  succeeded  Archibald  Alexander  as 
president  of  Hampden-Sidney— a  much  younger  man ;  but  at 
the  age  when  Archibald  Alexander  entered  upon  those  duties, 
INToses  Hoge  had  not  even  entered  an  academy.    Whither  he 
might  never  have  gone,  had  not  two  strangers  been  so  im- 
pressed with  his  self-taught  acquirements  as  to  persuade  his 
father  to  give  him  a  liberal  education — no  easy  thing  in 
those  times.     Started  on  this,  he  stopped  for  a  year  to  vol- 
unteer in  the  revolutionary  army.     Then  three  years  under 
Dr.    Graham   in   academic  training  at   Liberty   Hall,    and 
two  years  more  of  divinity  under  the  same  teacher ;  such  was 
his  preparation.    It  was  not  the  age  of  specialists,  but  solid 
and  well-rounded  scholars  turned  out  scholars  as  solid  and 
well-rounded  as  themselves. 

While  the  histories  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  have 
never  ignored  the  preliminary  work  of  Dr.  Hoge,  it  has 
generally  been  assumed  that  its  distinct  organic  life  began 
with  Dr.  Rice.  This  seems  hardly  true  to  history;  nor 
does  it  at  all  detract  from  the  "mart  of  the  large  honors" 
well  earned  by  Dr.  Rice  by  his  great  labors  in  enlarging 
and  endowing  it.     No  more  are  his  labors  set  aside  by  the 

'  Dr.  Alexander's  biographer  refers  this  to  his  father,  James  Hoge. 
But  Dr.  Alexander's  own  statement,  which  is  quoted,  has  been  misunder- 
stood. Life  of  Dr.  Alexander,  p.  120.  The  reference  on  page  91  is  to 
.the  father. 


8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

men  of  our  own  time  in  giving  it  a  fitter  location  and  a  more 
splendid  equipment. 

The  Theological  School  under  Dr.  Hoge  was  not  a  mere 
department  of  the  college,  but  a  separate  and  distinct 
institution,  founded  by  the  Synod  of  Virginia,  who  elected 
Dr.  Hoge  its  professor  in  the  same  year  that  the  General 
Assembly  called  Dr.  Alexander  to  Princeton.  In  that 
year  ( 1812),  and  not  in  1823,  the  history  of  our  Theological 
Seminary  begins.^  Dr.  Hoge  was  faithful  to  the  college, 
but  he  spent  himself  and  his  substance  for  the  Theological 
Seminary.  And  as  long  as  he  was  willing  to  do  this  the 
Synod  was  content  to  let  him  do  it ;  only  when  he  was  gone 
was  it  roused  to  the  necessity  of  a  more  liberal  provision;, 
and  but  for  Dr.  Rice  it  is  questionable  whether  anything 

^  On  what  ground  can  the  present  seminary  be  considered  a  different 
institution?  Because  Dr.  Hoge  had  no  distinct  building?  Dr.  Rice- 
taught  his  first  classes  in  President  Cushing's  kitchen.  Because- 
Dr.  Hoge  was  also  president  of  the  college?  The  seminary  has 
always  permitted  her  professors  to  hold  other  positions;  as,  for  in- 
stance, to  be  pastors  of  churches.  Because  of  the  change  of  control? 
During  Dr.  Rice's  time,  Hanover  Presbytery  handed  it  over  to  the 
Synods  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  as,  after  Dr.  Hoge's  death, 
the  Synod  of  Virginia  had  handed  it  over  to  the  Presbytery.  Because 
of  the  change  of  name?  The  present  name  was  not  adopted  until  the 
joint  control  was  established.  Because  it  had  no  board  of  Trustees?' 
Their  names  are  recorded  in  the  manuscript  Life  of  Dr.  Hoge,  and 
their  reports  were  regularly  called  for  in  the  Synod  (see  Minutes). 
Because  it  had  no  charter?  A  charter  was  applied  for  by  petition  of 
the  board,  and  refused  on  the  same  ground  that  it  was  refused  down  to- 
1868,  and  in  1816  the  Synod  appointed  "John  H.  Rice,  William  Wirt, 
LL.  D.,  and  Benjamin  Harrison  to  draw  up  a  memorial,  stating  the  dis- 
advantages under  which  the  Synod  lies  from  the  refusal  of  the  Legisla- 
ture to  grant  a  charter  to  the  trustees  of  the  Theological  Seminary." 
(Dr.  Rice's  connection  with  this  matter  has  probably  led  to  the  idea 
that  it  was  during  his  administration.)  Because  it  had  no  endowment?' 
The  salary  of  the  professor  and  aid  to  students  were  paid  from  its  funds, 
and  the  Synod  turned  over  to  the  Presbytery  eight  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty-six  dollars  and  four  cents— the  nucleus  of  the  present 
endowment  of  the  Seminary.  Because  its  exercises  were  suspended  upon- 
Dr.  Hoge's  death?  But  the  continuity  was  preserved  by  the  guar- 
dianship of  its  funds  by  the  Synod  and  Presbytery.  During  .he  civil' 
war  the  exercises  were  again  practically  suspended. 


Ancestry.  9 

would  have  been  done  even  then ;  all  of  which  may  be  read 
more  amply  told  in  Foote. 

Dr.  Hoge's  first  wife — and  the  mother  of  all  his  chil- 
dren— was  Elizabeth  Poage,  a  member  of  that  remarkable 
family  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia  that  has  given  to  the  church 
about  two  hundred  ministers,  ministers'  wives  and  mission- 
aries. A  saintly  and  lovable  person  she  seems  to  have  been, 
and  he  lavished  on  her  all  the  tenderness  of  his  affectionate 
nature.  Yet  when  she  died  he  had  the  extraordinary  firm- 
ness to  stand  by  her  open  grave  and  preach  with  a  pathos  that 
melted  every  heart  in  the  astonished  assembly,  on  the  text, 
"Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord."  There  were 
strong  men  in  those  days,  and  eternal  things  were  very  real. 
Personal  grief  must  be  crushed  down  that  souls  might  be 
saved. 

His  second  wife,  and  the  companion  of  his  labors  at 
Hampden-Sidney,  was  Mrs.  Susan  Hunt,  mentioned  as- 
Susan  Watkins,  in  the  Life  of  Doctor  Alexander,  with  grati- 
tude for  her  conversation  during  the  "great  revival" ;  a 
noble  and  helpful  wife,  sharing  his  sacrifices  and  spending 
her  substance,  as  he  spent  his,  to  help  needy  students.  Her 
son,  brought  up  by  Dr.  Hoge,  was  the  well-known 
Thomas  P.  Hunt,  celebrated  in  his  day  as  a  temperance 
lecturer. 

Death  came  to  Dr.  Hoge  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  had 
gone  to  attend  the  General  Assembly.  "Translated,"  as  his 
epitaph  says,  "from  the  General  Assembly  on  earth  to  the 
general  assembly  and  church  of  the  firstborn."  He  died 
July  5,  1820,  aged  sixty-eight  years,  and  is  buried  near  his 
old  friend,  John  Blair  Smith.  He  had  just  visited  the  grave- 
yard at  Princeton  with  Dr.  Alexander,  where  he  too  has 
long  lain,  and  enjoyed  delightful  intercourse  with  his  friend; 
doubtless  long  ago  renewed  above. 

There  are  many  delightful  stories  afloat  of  Dr.  Hoge's 
saintly  character,  especially  of  his  unworldliness ;  one  of  his 
quiet  courage  may  be  told,  because  authenticated.     During 


lo  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  "Western  insurrection"  he  was  anxious  for  the  Synod 
of  Virginia  to  make  a  dehverance  against  lawlessness. 
The  measure  failed,  as  savoring  of  politics,  and  the  Vir- 
ginia troops  quartered  at  Harrisonburg  (where  the  Synod 
was  meeting)  on  their  way  to  the  scene  of  the  insurrection, 
were  much  incensed;  the  talk  was  of  tar  and  feathers  for 
some  of  the  dignitaries ;  but  Dr.  Hoge  worked  his  way  to 
the  midst  of  them,  and  not  only  dissuaded  them  from  their 
purpose,  but  made  such  an  impression  upon  them  that  they 
asked  him  to  preach ;  and  the  mob  was  turned  into  a  congre- 
gation. The  story  justifies  John  Randolph's  opinion  that 
there  were  only  two  men  who  could  bring  quiet  to  a  certain 
court-green  on  court  day — "Patrick  Henry  by  his  eloquence, 
and  Dr.  Hoge  by  simply  passing  through." 

This  same  keen-eyed  Randolph  has  given  the  best  picture 
of  the  man.  Cowper  drew  the  portrait,  Randolph  made  the 
application.    The  poet  says : 

*'  I  venerate  the  man  whose  heart  is  warm, 
Whose  hands  are  pure,  whose  doctrine  and  whose  Hfe, 
Coincident,  exhibit  lucid  proof 
That  he  is  honest  in  the  sacred  cause. 
To  such  I  render  more  than  mere  respect. 
Whose  actions  say  that  they  respect  themselves." 

And  farther  on : 

"  Would  I  describe  a  preacher  such  as  Paul, 
Were  he  on  earth,  would  hear,  approve  and  own — 
Paul  should  himself  direct  me.     I  would  trace 
His  master  strokes  and  draw  from  his  design. 
I  would  express  him  simple,  grave,  sincere; 
In  doctrine  uncorrupt ;    in  language  plain, 
And  plain  in  manner;    decent,  solemn,  chaste, 
And  natural  in  gesture ;    much  impressed 
Himself,  as  conscious  of  his  awful  charge, 
And  anxious  mainly  that  the  flock  he  feeds 
May  feel  it  too;    aflfectionate  in  look. 
And  tender  in  address,  as  well  becomes 
A  messenger  of  grace  to  guilty  men." 

By  each  of  these  passages,  in  a  copy  of  Cowper  purchased 
from  Randolph's  library,  is  written  in  his  hand,  "Mr.  Hoge." 


y^ 


■x^Lgk-^z^^  *-» 


M- 


•c* — ^ — -fl    .. 


•^ 


Ancestry.  ii 

But  now  of  him  no  more,  though  on  such  a  hfe  the  pen 
delights  to  hnger.  He  bequeathed  to  his  descendants  Httle 
of  this  world's  goods.  But  he  left  them  a  name  that  they 
treasure  as  above  great  riches.  The  venerable  Dr.  Plumer 
once  said,  on  seeing  one  of  the  younger  descendants,  "He 
has  the  Hoge  jerk."  One  may  be  glad  to  be  marked 
as  the  descendant  of  such  a  man,  even  by  an  ungraceful 
gesture. 

Four  of  Dr.  Hoge's  sons  grew  to  manhood;  three  be- 
came ministers  of  the  gospel  in  his  life-time ;  the  fourth  was 
a  beloved  physician  and  an  honored  ruling  elder  in  the 
■church. 

James  Hoge,  the  eldest,  was  the  pioneer  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary of  Ohio.  His  parish  extended  to  the  Mississippi, 
but  he  settled  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  where  he  built  the  first 
house,  and  which  he  saw  grow  up  around  him.  He  organ- 
ized the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  and  celebrated  his  jubi- 
lee as  its  pastor.  His  experience  differed  from  that  of  his 
nephew — to  be  hereafter  related — in  that  it  was  not  his  only 
charge,  and  that  he  had  retired  from  active  service  two  years 
before.  He  was  the  founder  of  many  of  the  great  charitable 
institutions  of  the  State.  When  President  Hayes  and  his 
Cabinet  visited  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1877,  and  met  his  nephew, 
Mr.  Hayes  and  Mr.  Sherman  told  him  that  they  could  not 
remember  the  time  when  they  had  not  learned  to  revere 
the  name  of  Hoge.  We  shall  hear  of  him  again  in  these 
pages. 

Dr.  James  Hoge  had  one  son  in  the  ministry,  the  late 
Rev.  Dr.  Moses  A.  Hoge,  and  one  daughter,  Elizabeth,  who 
was  married  to  the  well-known  evangelist  of  Alabama,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Robert  Nail,  and  was  the  mother  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
James  Hoge  Nail,  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robert 
H.  Nail,  of  Greenwood,  S.  C. 

John  Blair  Hoge  was  the  most  gifted  of  the  sons.  He 
began  to  study  for  the  law,  but  early  felt  the  divine  call,  and 
gave  himself  to  the  gospel  ministry.    He  inherited  the  feeble 


12  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

constitution  of  his  mother,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1814  went 
to  the  south  of  France  for  the  recovery  of  his  health,  running- 
in  the  night  the  British  blockade  of  New  York.  "On  the 
eighth  day  we  fell  in  with  the  British  seventy-four  gun  ship 
Bellerophon,^  Captain  Hawkes.  We  were  of  course  brought 
to,  and  boarded  by  some  of  the  officers.  They  examined  our 
papers  and  endorsed  them  as  being  under  Swedish  colors. 
They  inquired  if  there  were  any  Americans  on  board.  Had 
he  asked  me  I  should  not  have  hesitated  to  say,  'Yes' ;  but 
the  captain,  of  whom  the  inquiry  was  made,  answered  in  the 
negative.  We  were,  therefore,  without  further  examination, 
suffered  to  proceed.  Had  it  been  known  that  our  whole 
establishment  was  an  imposition — that  the  vessel  was  Amer- 
ican and  had  been  captured  from  the  British,  and  that  there 
were  six  Americans  aboard — perhaps  we  might  not  have 
escaped  with  so  much  facility.  The  deception  was  not  then 
generally  known  to  the  passengers."  They  landed  at  St. 
Martin's,  Isle  de  Re,  on  the  thirty-first  day. 

The  pile  of  old  faded  letters,  from  the  first  of  which  we  have 
quoted,  lies  before  us.  The  next  (January  22,  1815)  speaks 
of  the  rum.or  of  peace  with  Great  Britain;  the  next  (March 
4th)  of  Napoleon's  return  from  Elba;  the  next,  of  his  tri- 
umphant, unimpeded  progress  to  Paris.  Another  says :  "I 
was  in  Paris  when  Napoleon  returned  after  losing  the 
battle  of  Waterloo,  and  when  he  abdicated.  I  was  present 
when  Louis  XVHI.  made  his  triumphal  entrance  into  hiS' 
capital.  Notwithstanding  the  clamors  of  the  multitude,  it 
was  a  poor  triumph,  when  the  way  to  the  hearts  of  his 
subjects — over  which  a  monarch  ought  to  rule — was  opened 
and  cleared  by  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  foreign 
bayonets."  ^ 

This  was  a  trip  to  Europe  that  one  cannot  have  every  day ; 
but  its  history  cannot  be  followed  further.     Mr.  Hoge  re- 

^  Which  afterwards  took  Napoleon  to  Saint  Helena. 
^  Recalling  a  witticism  of  that  day,  that  you  can  do  almost  anything 
with  bayonets — except  sit  on  them;   as  Louis  soon  found. 


Ancestry.  13 

mained  abroad  about  two  years.  His  letters  reveal  an  ele- 
gant, scholarly  mind,  cultivated  by  the  best  literature,  and 
intent  on  extending  its  attainments.  He  returned  somewhat 
improved  in  health  and  much  enriched  in  mind,  with  deeper 
views  of  life  and  a  profounder  impression  of  the  value  of 
religion  from  seeing  the  state  of  countries  that  had  all  things 
else  and  lacked  that.  His  ministry  was  much  sought  after 
when  he  began  to  preach — a  boy  of  twenty.  He  was  only 
twenty-six  now;  but  for  the  ten  years  of  life  that  remained 
to  him,  though  much  interrupted  by  ill  health,  he  was  pro- 
bably the  most  brilliant  preacher  in  Virginia.  The  impres- 
sion of  his  oratory  upon  his  contemporaries  was  of  a  force 
overmastering,  almost  magical.  It  was  so  in  the  rural  con- 
gregations of  Tuscarora  and  Falling  Waters.  It  was  yet 
more  so  after  he  removed  to  Richmond,^  and  the  most  bril- 
liant professional  men  of  Virginia  sought  his  ministry.  One 
of  the  eminent  men  of  the  present  day  tells  how  his  father 
used  to  describe  one  of  his  sermons  as  surpassing  in  the 
flight  of  its  oratory  anything  he  had  ever  heard;  when  he 
had  risen  from  climax  to  climax  of  appeal,  he  suddenly 
turned  from  the  congregation  and  apostrophized  the  record- 
ing angel,  praying  him  to  stay  his  hand  and  not  seal  up  the 
doom  of  the  impenitent  until  once  more  he  presented  to  them 
the  offer  of  mercy.  He  had  not  completed  his  thirty-sixth 
year  when  he  finished  his  labors,  March  31,  1826. 

He  left  a  manuscript  life  of  his  father.  The  publisher's 
copy  was  destroyed  by  a  fire  in  the  publishing  house,  and  the 
previous  death  of  the  author  prevented  its  preparation  again 
for  publication.^ 

Samuel  Davies  Hoge  was  the  third  of  Dr.  Hoge's  sons 
to  reach  manhood.     He  was  born  in  Shepherdstown  pro- 

^  In  1822,  as  the  successor  to  the  Rev.  John  D.  Biair,  of  the  "Church 
■on  Shockoe  Hill" — now  "Grace  Street." 

'  A  copy  of  the  MS.  is  in  the  library  of  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
Richmond,  Va.,  presented  by  his  son,  the  late  Judge  John  Blair  Hoge, 
of  Martinsburg,  W.  Va. 


14  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

bably  ^   on  April  i6,  1792,  when  we  find  the  following  entry 
in  his  father's  journal : 

Another  young  immortal  is  committed  to  my  care.  I 
thank  thee,  O  Lord,  for  all  thy  goodness  to  me  and  to  my 
dear  wife.  Continue  thy  goodness  with  us  and  bless  our 
ofifspring.  Bless,  I  humbly  pray  thee,  this  infant.  May  he 
see  many  days,  if  it  be  thy  holy  will,  and  may  he  do  much 
for  thy  glory.  To  thee,  O  Lord,  do  I  solemnly  devote  him. 
May  he  be  thy  child  and  an  heir  of  glory  everlasting. 

Davies,  as  he  was  called,  received  his  early  education  from 
his  father,  and  from  the  young  men  studying  for  the  min- 
istry with  his  father.  Later  he  attended  a  classical  school 
taught  by  his  brother  James  in  Augusta  county,  before  his 
removal  to  Ohio. 

He  was  early  a  subject  of  divine  grace,  and  in  his  youth 
made  a  public  confession  of  his  faith.  His  sensitive  and 
delicate  organization  rendered  him  peculiarly  susceptible  to 
the  strange  physical  and  mental  influences  that  accompanied 
the  revivals  of  those  days.  When  about  nine  years  old  he 
accompanied  his  parents  on  a  trip  to  the  South,  undertaken 
for  the  sake  of  his  mother's  health,  and,  attending  one  of 
these  meetings,  "he  became  a  subject  of  powerful  excite- 
ment, and  prayed,  and  exhorted  the  crowd  which  gathered 
around  him  with  astonishing  fervor  and  effect."  While  with 
his  brother  in  Augusta  he  was  a  subject  of  the  mysterious 
"falling  exercise,"  in  which  men  suddenly  fell  perfectly  rigid 
under  the  powerful  warnings  of  the  pulpit.  He  reported 
afterwards  that  he  was  perfectly  conscious  and  his  thoughts 
were  engaged  on  the  subject  of  religion.  These  excitements 
passed  away,  and  ever  afterward  the  current  of  his  religious 
life  flowed  calm  and  clear. 

^  Mr.  Hoge's  age  as  given  on  his  tomb  would  place  his  birth  in  i793- 
If  this  is  correct,  the  infant  referred  to  above  died  in  infancy.  In  any 
case,  the  record  illustrates  Dr.  Hoge's  custom,  and  accounts  for  the 
blessing  that  has  rested  on  his  offspring  to  the  third  and  fourth  gen- 
eration. 


Ancestry.  15 

When  his  father  became  president  of  Hampden-Sidney 
College,  he  was  entered  as  a  student,  and  was  graduated  in 
1 8 10.  He  entered  at  once  upon  a  course  of  theology  with 
his  father,  serving  meanwhile  as  a  tutor  in  the  college.  His 
licensure  took  place  at  a  meeting  of  Hanover  Presbytery  in 
Lynchburg,  on  May  8,  1813.  His  father  presided  on  the 
occasion,  and  presented  him  with  a  Bible  that  had  belonged 
to  his  mother,  "with  an  appeal  that  filled  the  house  with 
audible  weeping." 

The  brief  story  of  his  life  will  be  told  elsewhere. 

Thomas  Hoge  was  the  youngest  of  the  sons.  Born  in 
1799,  he  had  just  come  of  age  when  his  father  died.  Choos- 
ing the  profession  of  medicine,  as  early  as  1823  he  was 
reported  to  be  "very  popular  for  his  skill  and  humanity." 
He  was  well  advanced  in  life  before  he  made  a  profession  of 
religion.  But  his  brother  James  came  all  the  way  from  Ohio 
to  make  him  a  visit  with  this  special  burden  on  his  heart. 
He  was,  of  course,  invited  to  preach  in  the  neighboring 
church,  and  the  sermon  was  blessed  in  bringing  his  brother 
to  Christ. 

The  origin  of  the  Lacy  family  in  Virginia  is  even  more 
romantic  than  that  of  the  Hoges.  The  name  is  an  honored 
one  in  English  history,  occurring  on  the  rolls  of  Battle  Abbey 
and  among  the  barons  who  signed  Magna  Charta.  Mr. 
Hugh  Blair  Grigsby,  the  eminent  authority  on  the  history 
and  genealogy  of  Virginia  families,  who  had  spent  some  time 
in  the  family  of  the  Rev.  Drury  Lacy,  believed  that  the 
Lacys  of  Virginia  were  from  that  noble  stock.  The  investi- 
gations of  Mr.  Graham  G.  Lacy,  assisted  by  the  Countess  of 
Chesterfield,  tend  to  confirm  that  view,  and  to  make  it  pro- 
bable that  the  founder  of  the  family  in  America  was  a  de- 
scendant of  the  Thornhill  branch  of  the  Lacy  family  in 
Yorkshire.  However  that  may  be,  one  Thomas  Lacy  left 
England  about  1685,  and  set  sail  for  America.  The  vessel 
was  captured  by  the  celebrated  pirate  Tieck,  or  Blackbeard, 


i6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

and  all  were  made  to  walk  the  plank  but  Lacy  and  one  other, 
who,  Tieck  said,  were  too  fine-looking  fellows  not  to  be 
pirates.  The  vessel  put  into  one  of  the  inlets  of  North  Caro- 
lina, and  was  captured  by  an  expedition  organized  by  the 
Governors  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  under  Lieuten- 
ant Maynard.  There  was  a  fierce  fight  on  board,  in  which 
Lacy  seized  a  cutlass,  and  rushed  on  deck,  crying,  "I  am  a 
true  man  and  no  pirate,"  and  did  such  execution  that  he 
turned  the  tide  of  battle.  Blackbeard  was  captured  and 
hung,  with  all  his  crew,  and  Lacy  was  rewarded  with  the 
grant  of  a  tract  of  land  near  Manikin-town,  below  Rich- 
mond, and  there  married  one  Ann  Burnley. 

His  son,  William  Lacy,  of  Chesterfield  county,  was 
a  planter  in  comfortable  circumstances,  who,  we  are  told, 
"was  distinguished  more  for  his  hospitality  than  for  his 
carefulness  in  the  management  of  his  estate  or  the  education 
of  his  children."  His  wife  was  Elizabeth  Rice,  a  woman  of 
devoted  piety.  The  celebrated  Dr.  Rice  was  of  the  same 
family.  Their  son,  Drury  Lacy,  was  born  October  5,  1758. 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  about  ten  years  old,  and  his 
father  when  he  was  sixteen.  His  patrimony  was  gone ;  his 
education  was  meagre,  and  he  had  lost  his  left  hand  by  the 
explosion  of  a  gun,  which  a  cowardly  soldier  at  a  county 
muster  asked  him  to  fire,  having  loaded  it  so  deep  that  he 
was  afraid  to  fire  it  himself. 

But  it  was  these  hard  conditions  that  brought  out  the 
man  in  him.  Manual  pursuits  being  out  of  the  question,  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  cultivation  of  his  mind,  which  was  of 
great  natural  vigor.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  became  a 
teacher  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Daniel  Allen,  an  elder  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Cumberland  county.  The  church 
was  supplied  at  the  time  by  the  Rev.  John  Blair  Smith, 
president  of  Hampden-Sidney  College.  Under  his  ministry 
he  united  with  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Meanwhile,  by  his 
■own  efforts,  he  was  acquiring  a  good  knowledge  of  mathe- 
matics and  the  English  branches.     He  afterwards  taught  in 


Ancestry.  17 

the  family  of  Colonel  Nash,  of  Prince  Edward,  the  father- 
in-law  of  President  Smith,  where  he  had  the  privilege  of 
Dr.  Smith's  instruction  for  an  hour  or  two  a  week.  In 
this  way  he  acquired  sufficient  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek 
to  be  appointed  tutor  in  the  college  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three.  He  studied  theology  under  Dr.  Smith,  and  was 
licensed  to  preach  September,  1787,  and  ordained  the  follow- 
ing year.  To  lighten  the  burdens  of  the  president,  he  was 
elected  vice-president  of  the  college,  and,  on  Dr.  Smith's 
resignation  to  go  to  Philadelphia,  he  became  for  several 
years  the  acting  president.  During  a  part  of  this  time  he 
was  associated  with  Archibald  Alexander  as  collegiate  pas- 
tor of  a  large  group  of  churches  in  Charlotte,  Prince  Edward 
and  Cumberland  counties.  On  the  division  of  the  field  he 
retired  from  the  college  in  1796,  being  succeeded  by  Dr. 
Alexander.  He  then  lived  on  his  farm,  "Mount  Ararat," 
near  Hampden-Sidney,  and  besides  supplying  the  neighbor- 
ing churches  taught  a  classical  school.^ 

Mr.  Lacy  was  much  sought  after  for  special  services, 
where  his  peculiar  gifts  were  most  useful.  His  tender,  emo- 
tional nature  and  fervent  piety  made  his  preaching  very 
effective  in  times  of  religious  interest,  while  his  voice,  of 
great  power  and  beauty,  enabled  him  to  speak  to  vast  crowds 
out  of  doors  as  no  one  else  could.  He  was  called  "Lacy  of 
the  silver  hand  ^  and  the  silver  tongue."  He  was  also  of 
elegant  presence  and  of  rare  social  qualities.  An  old  lady 
said  that  "he  exceeded  any  one  she  ever  saw  at  a  sacrament 
and  at  a  wedding."  Unlike  many  preachers,  he  was  a  fine 
listener.     Mrs.  John  H.  Rice  says,  "I  can  in  no  way  bring 

'  Of  this  school  the  late  Hon.  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby  said,  in  his 
Historical  Discourse  at  the  Hampden-Sidney  centennial :  "  I  was  one 
of  those  pupils  and  bear  my  testimony  to  his  thorough  teaching  of  the 
Latin  tongue.  Though  sixty-one  years  have  passed  since  I  was  under 
Tiis  care,  I  feel  the  influence  of  his  teachings  on  my  mind  and  character 
at  this  moment  and  pointing  the  very  thought  I  am  now  pressing  upon 
you." 

^  From  the  artificial  silver  hand  he  used  to  replace  his  lost  member. 


i8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

him  more  plainly  before  me  than  by  thinking  of  him  as  he 
was  listening  to  Dr.  Alexander's  eloquence,  and  casting 
his  deep  blue  eyes  over  the  congregation,  with  the  tears 
streaming  down  his  cheeks,  to  notice  the  effect  which  it  pro- 
duced." 

This  recalls  what  Dr.  William  Hoge  wrote  of  his  son 
and  namesake.  Dr.  Drury  Lacy,  of  North  Carolina : 

Uncle  Drury  is  about  the  best  hearer  in  the  world.  He 
leans  forward  and  drinks  in  with  his  whole  face  and  form 
and  all  his  senses.  He  reflects  every  emotion,  beaming  on 
you  if  you  are  cheerful,  and  weeping  if  you  are  tender. 
Even  then  he  does  not  hide  his  face  with  a  handkerchief, 
but  beams  on,  and  lets  the  big,  honest  tears  roll  and  take 
care  of  themselves.  If  I  had  a  whole  audience  of  Uncle 
Drurys,  I  should  think  I  was  the  greatest  orator  in  the 
world.  If  every  face  were  such  a  mirror  of  emotion,  the 
speaker  who  stood  in  the  focus  would  be  consumed. 

Another  characteristic  that  he  bequeathed  to  many  of  his 
descendants  was  the  extraordinary  beauty  of  his  handwrit- 
ine-  The  records  of  Hanover  Presbytery  while  he  was 
stated  clerk  are  marvels  of  elegance,  as  are  his  diary,  letters 
and  collection  of  mathematical  problems. 

In  October,  1810,  Dr.  Rice  wrote  to  Dr.  Alexander: 

Have  you  heard  of  Mr.  Lacy's  trip  to  Richmond  last 
month,  and  of  the  effects  which  his  preaching  produced? 
I  have  understood  that  a  number  of  persons  since  that 
time  have  determined,  if  possible,  to  get  some  evangelical 
preacher  to  live  in  the  place.  .  .  .  From  some  commu- 
nications that  have  been  made  to  me,  I  have  reason  to 
believe  that  they  depend  on  me  to  do  the  work  for  them. 

This  movement  was  stimulated  by  the  burning  of  the 
Richmond  Theatre  in  181 1,  when  under  that  dispensation  of 
sorrow  Dr.  Rice  was  so  importuned  by  the  people  that  he 
undertook  the  work.  There  had  long  been  preaching  in  the 
Capitol  by  "Parson  Blair"  on  alternate  Sundays,  but  the  con- 
gregations thus  gathered  lived  on  Shockoe  Hill,  and  did  not 


Ancestry.  ig 

reach  the  mercantile  and  laboring  classes,  which  were  then 
grouped  about  "Rocketts."  At  his  installation  in  October, 
1812,  Dr.  Hoge  presided  and  "gave  the  charge  to  the 
minister  and  congregation  in  his  most  moving  and  affecting 
manner."  Thus  Moses  Hoge  and  Drury  Lacy  were  both 
associated  with  the  founding  of  that  church  which  was  the 
means  of  bringing  to  Richmond  thirty-two  years  later  the 
grandson  and  namesake  of  both. 

Mr.  Lacy  was  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  in 
Philadelphia  in  1809.     He  was  unable  to  attend  the  follow- 
ing year,  and  arranged  for  Dr.  Rice  to  preach  the  opening 
sermon.    The  relation  between  these  two  men  was  most  re- 
markable.   They  were  distantly  related  themselves,  but  were 
much  more  nearly  connected  by  marriage.      Drury  Lacy 
married  Anne,  the  daughter  of  William  Smith,  of  Powha- 
tan.    Dr.  Rice  married  her  namesake,  the  daughter  of  her 
sister  Mary,  who  was  the  wife  of  Major  William  Morton; 
a  couple  justly  celebrated  in  all  the  histories  of  early  Presby- 
terianism  in  Virginia.     The  last  five  years  of  Mr.  Lacy's 
life  his  preaching  underwent  a  marked  change.     Always 
fervent  and  at  times  great,  it  became  now  more  studied  and 
uniformly  strong.     He  said,  "I  owe  it  all  to  Jack  Rice." 
Contact  with  the  younger  man  caused  him  to  develop  a  more 
systematic  and  thorough  style  of  preparation,  and  to  display 
even  higher  mental  gifts  than  had  been  attributed  to  him. 
But  in  all  his  ministry  he  had  the  joy  of  winning  souls,  both 
by  his  preaching  and  by  his  private  religious  conversation, 
in  which  he  was  peculiarly  gifted. 

He  died  in  Philadelphia  December  6,  18 15,  from  the 
effects  of  a  surgical  operation.  His  letter  to  his  wife  an- 
nouncing the  necessity  of  the  operation  was  full  of  tender 
farewell  and  calm  hope  in  God.  But  it  was  not  needed. 
She  was  taken  with  fever  just  after  he  left  home  and  died 
before  him.  He  never  knew  it  until  they  met  on  the  other 
side.  He  was  buried  in  the  graveyard  of  the  Third  Presby- 
terian Church. 


20  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Of  the  three  sons  of  Mr.  Lacy,  William  and  Drury  be- 
came ministers  and  Horace  a  physician — all  useful  and  hon- 
ored in  their  generation ;  all  lived  to  venerable  years. 

William  Lacy  spent  his  ministry  in  Arkansas ;  Drury  in 
North  Carolina.  They  served  the  church  faithfully  in  their 
youth  and  manhood,  and  in  their  beautiful  old  age  they  were 
the  ornaments  of  their  synods;  their  hoary  heads  were  a 
crown  of  glory  and  their  countenances  beamed  with  the 
beauty  of  holiness.  William  became  blind  in  his  old  age, 
but  the  light  of  another  world  shone  so  into  his  soul  that 
people  came  from  far  to  listen  to  his  conversation,  that 
flowed  like  a  silver  stream,  sometimes  falling  into  verse. 
When  Drury  finished  his  course,  he  came  in  from  a  walk, 
lay  down  for  a  nap,  and  awoke  in  heaven.  Dr.  Horace  Lacy's 
useful  and  honorable  life  was  spent  in  his  native  county  of 
Prince  Edward.  Dr.  William  Lacy  was  the  father  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Beverly  Tucker  Lacy,  now  of  Washington,  D.  C, 
and  of  Major  J.  Horace  Lacy,  of  Fredericksburg,  whose  son 
is  the  Rev.  J.  Horace  Lacy,  of  Clarksville,  Tenn.  Dr.  Drury 
Lacy  was  the  father  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  S.  Lacy,  of 
Norfolk,  Va.  Dr.  Horace  Lacy  was  the  father  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Matthew  L.  Lacy,  of  Greenbrier  county,  W.  Va. 

Mr.  Lacy  had  two  daughters ;  the  younger,  Judith,  mar- 
ried the  Rev.  James  Brookes,  and  was  the  mother  of  the  late 
Rev.  Dr.  James  H.  Brookes,  of  St.  Louis.  The  elder,  Eliza- 
beth Rice,  was  married  to  Samuel  Davies  Hoge. 

The  older  ministers  of  Virginia  used  to  say  that  a  sermon 
composed  by  Moses  Hoge  and  delivered  by  Drury  Lacy 
would  be  the  masterpiece  of  pulpit  eloquence.  Which  thing 
was  yet  to  be ;  but  not  in  that  generation. 


CHAPTER  II. 
Birth  and  Boyhood. 

"Which  of  the  little  boys  now  living  and  playing,  and  vexing  their  mothers 
often,  will  God  sovereignly  choose  to  be  a  Newton  or  a  Haldane  or  a  Brainerd?" 
— William  James  Hoge. 

BEFORE  the  days  of  railroads,  Hampden-Sidney  was  on 
the  great  highway  from  Washington  to  the  South,  and 
many  distinguished  men  passed  that  way.  Prince  Edward 
Court-house  was  only  a  mile  away  and  drew  to  itself  a  bril- 
liant bar,  at  the  head  of  which  were  Patrick  Henry  and  John 
Randolph,  surrounded  by  men  less  known  to  fame,  but  fit 
to  adorn  the  highest  places  in  the  profession.  You  will  not 
find  in  the  encyclopedias  of  American  biography  the  name 
of  Samuel  J.  Anderson,  but  when  he  made  an  argument  in 
the  General  Assembly  it  was  discovered  that  he  was  the  peer 
of  the  leading  minds  of  the  church.  Henry  E.  Watkins  had 
no  national  reputation,  but  his  manners  would  have  graced 
the  court  of  St.  James.  When  a  distinguished  Virginian — 
recently  retired  from  the  New  York  bench — rebuked  the 
wrangling  of  two  attorneys  by  the  remark,  "In  this  court 
it  is  as  necessary  to  study  Chesterfield  as  Blacl<stone,"  he 
was  but  reflecting  the  traditions  of  the  society  in  which  he 
had  been  reared  and  the  courts  in  which  he  had  earliest  prac- 
ticed.^    The  homes  of  the  neighboring  planters  were  like- 

^  After  this  was  written,  I  discovered  a  fragment  of  a  letter  of  my 
uncle's  that  runs  as  follows : 

"  It  is  well  to  put  upon  permanent  record  the  virtues  and  services  of 
the  men  who  formed  these  county  courts.  The  fact  that  the  changed 
condition  of  things  in  Virginia  made  the  continuance  of  these  benches 
of  intelligent  and  upright  magistrates  impracticable  is  the  sad  fact  in 
our  history.  When  my  native  county  of  Prince  Edward  had  men  like 
old  Colonel  Venable  and  Major  John  Morton  ("Solid  Column"  was 
his  sobriquet)  to  dispense  justice,  it  was  administered  with  an  intelli- 


22  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

wise  the  seats  of  culture  and  refinement  and  Christian  cour- 
tesy. In  time  the  college  and  seminary  created  their  own 
community,  and  as  the  old  plantations  went  down  under 
changed  conditions,  the  culture  and  refinement  of  the  county 
became  more  and  more  centred  in  "The  Hill." 

To  the  students  of  Hampden-Sidney  the  doors  of  this 
society  have  always  been  thrown  open  with  a  cordial  wel- 
come and  a  gracious  hospitality,  and  the  social  atmosphere 
into  which  they  were  thus  brought  has  been  no  small  part 
of  the  education  Hampden-Sidney  has  given  her  students. 

Nor  did  her  kindness  stop  there.  These  gracious  influ- 
ences were  given  freely  to  all ;  to  some  she  gave  more — her 
fair  daughters.  When  a  few  years  ago  a  certain  presidential 
ticket  was  announced,  and  it  became  known  that  the  wife  of 
the  vice-presidential  candidate  was  a  "  Hampden-Sidney 
girl,"  there  were  many  who  knew  at  once  that  she  would  not 
suffer  by  comparison  with  the  charming  lady  with  whom  she 
was  to  be  associated,  whose  youth  and  beauty  and  goodness 
had  already  won  the  hearts  of  the  nation. 

But  the  layman  who  has  secured  one  of  these  treasures  for 
himself  is  a  rara  avis.  From  the  days  of  John  Blair  Smith 
and  John  Holt  Rice  the  ministry  has  regarded  this  field  as 
its  own  preserve,  and  for  more  than  a  century  Hampden- 
Sidney  and  Prince  Edward  have  given  their  daughters  to 
grace  the  manses  of  our  land.  And  of  all  this  noble  army 
— not  of  martyrs,  let  us  hope — none  were  nobler  than  Eliz- 
abeth Rice  Lacy,  whom  Samuel  Davies  Hoge  wooed  and 

gent  integrity  never  surpassed  by  any  tribunal.  When  all  the  people  of 
the  county  came  together  on  court  day  to  discuss  social,  business  and 
political  affairs,  the  result  was  a  general  diffusion  of  information  about 
things  worth  knowing,  that  was  in  itself  an  education,  and,  better  still, 
the  creation  of  a  kindly,  neighborly  and  friendly  feeling  that  made  them 
homogeneous,  and  contributed  something  to  refinement  of  character. 
You  probably  never  heard  that  when  my  venerable  grandfather.  Dr. 
Moses  Hoge,  was  president  of  Hampden-Sidney  College,  he  gave  the 
students  holiday  on  every  court  day,  because,  he  said,  they  could  learn 
more  from  John  Randolph  and  others  who  addressed  the  citizens  from 
the  hustings  than  they  could  learn  from  their  text-books." 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  23 

won  for  his  bride.  Wherever  she  went  in  after  Hfe — and  she 
had  her  years  of  change  and  sadness — people  looked  up  to 
her  as  one  not  altogether  of  themselves,  even  while  they 
came  to  her  with  confidence  as  the  unfailing  and  helpful 
friend.  Of  her  youth  Mr.  Grigsby  gives  a  charming  picture 
in  his  Historical  Discourse.  Speaking  of  a  fever  through 
which  he  passed  while  a  pupil  at  her  father's,  he  said,  "It 
was  at  the  earliest  dawn  of  a  sweet  September  morning  in 
18 1 5  that,  after  a  long  interval  of  delirium,  I  opened  my 
eyes  for  the  first  time  in  a  conscious  state.  One  of  the 
daughters  of  Mr.  Lacy  had  stolen  from  her  room  on  tiptoe 
■  to  see  whether  I  was  still  living.  As  I  looked  up,  the  face  of 
a  lovely  girl,  her  black  eyes^  shaded  by  long,  dark  lashes, 
her  glowing  skin  reflecting  an  Italian  rather  than  a  Saxon 
hue,  and  her  raven  tresses  falling  in  ringlets  about  her  neck, 
was  bending  over  me.  Sixty-one  years  of  mingled  joys  and 
sorrows  have  rolled  over  my  head  since  I  beheld  that  charm- 
ing vision.  Often  has  it  come  before  me  in  the  dead  of  night 
when  nature  was  moving  to  the  music  of  the  spheres.  I 
have  thought  of  it  as  I  climbed  the  dizzy  mountain  height, 
or  as  I  strolled  by  the  shores  of  the  sea.  Its  features  some- 
times flash  upon  me  from  the  pages  of  Milton,  and  I  catch 
them  in  the  Briseis  of  Homer.  It  is  before  me  now,  and  I 
shall  never  forget  it.  Nor,  sir,"  turning  to  Dr.  Hoge,  "will 
you  ever  forget  it,  for  it  was  the  face  of  your  long-lost, 
long-lamented,  and  ever-lovely  mother." 

Those  who  knew  her  in  maturer  life  describe  her  as  of 
tall  and  stately  mien,  with  dark  brown  hair,  olive  complexion 
and  dark,  expressive  gray  eyes.  Her  eldest  son  said  of  her, 
"She  looked  a  queen  and  ought  to  have  been  one." 

The  marriage  was  in  February,  18 17.  We  can  picture  to 
ourselves  the  wedding  at  Mt.  Ararat  in  the  bright  winter 
days,  when  the  great  hickory  fires  crackle  on  the  ample 
hearth.     We  can  fancy  the  bustle  of  baking  and  brewing 

^  A  natural  mistake.  They  were  very  dark  gray.  The  same  mistake 
has  been  made  about  Dr.  Hoge's  eyes. 


24  Moses  Drury  Hoge, 

in  preparation  of  the  good  cheer  to  come.  We  can  see 
the  goodly  company  as  they  gather  with  good-will  in  their 
hearts  and  good  wishes  on  their  lips.  We  miss  the  beaming 
face  of  Mr.  Lacy,  always  at  his  best  at  weddings;  the 
mother,  too,  we  miss;  both  gone  more  than  two  years  be- 
fore. But  old  Dr.  Hoge  is  there,  about  to  receive  for  the 
first  time  a  daughter  to  his  arms  and  his  heart,  and  his  grave 
features  are  lighted  up  with  genial  kindness.  At  length  the 
bridegroom,  his  pale,  intellectual  face  glowing  with  joy  and 
pride,  stands  before  his  father  with  his  girlish  bride  on  his 
arm.  The  company  draws  nearer,  and  a  circle  of  black 
faces  closes  in  the  bright  picture  like  an  ebony  frame.  Then, 
amid  a  solemn  hush,  the  words  are  pronounced  that  make 
two  lives  one,  and  a  father's  voice  invokes  a  heavenly  Fa- 
ther's love  and  benediction.  And  that  love  never  failed; 
nor  did  theirs.  Days  of  suffering  came,  and  of  sadness,  and 
days  when  one  must  walk  alone;  but  the  blessing  of  that 
day  abode  with  them  always ;  and  abides  with  them  still. 

At  the  time  of  his  marriage  Mr.  Hoge  was  pastor  of 
Bethesda  Church,  at  Culpeper  Court-house.  He  entered 
this  field  soon  after  he  was  licensed,  giving  two  Sundays  a 
month  to  Culpeper,  whose  church  was  organized  under  his 
ministry,  and  the  other  Sundays  in  the  month  to  Madison 
Court-house  and  a  point  called  "Germanna."  Having  been 
transferred  to  Winchester  Presbytery,  order  for  his  ordina- 
tion was  taken  in  October,  1814,  and  at  Bethesda  April  15, 
.1815,  he  was  ordained,  and  installed  pastor  of  the  church. 
The  church  proved  unable  to  support  a  minister,  and  after 
his  marriage  he  applied  for  the  dissolution  of  his  pastoral 
relations,  which  was  granted  October  13,  18 17.  There  are 
some  interesting  reminiscences  of  his  ministry  at  Bethesda 
preserved  in  the  congregation,  which  still  exists  under  the 
name  of  Culpeper.  His  ministry  was  zealous  and  laborious ; 
he  took  an  active  interest  in  the  afifairs  of  presbytery,  and 
in  1 81 6  he  represented  it  as  a  commissioner  to  the  General 
Assembly. 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  25 

After  the  dissolution  of  his  pastoral  relations  Mr.  Hoge 
remained  at  Hampden-Sidney  as  professor,  and  for  a  time 
vice-president  of  the  college,  living  in  the  house  west  of  the 
college  building,  afterwards  known  as  the  Steward's  Hall. 
And  here,  on  the  night  of  September  17,  18 18,  was  born 
a  son,  who  in  due  time  was  named  for  his  two  grandfathers^ 
Moses  Drury  Hoge.  His  father,  writing  the  next  day  to 
the  Rev.  John  Blair  Hoge,  thus  announces  the  event : 

I  beg  leave  to  tell  you  that  your  nephew  is  pronounced  by 
his  grandfather  to  be  a  fine  fellow.  My  dear  Elizabeth  is  a 
mother,  and  I  have  charge  of  a  precious  young  immortal 
committed,  to  me.  "Here,"  said  she,  "is  another  sinful 
creature  for  you  to  pray  for."  Let  me  turn  the  address  to* 
you.  .  .  .  You  may  readily  suppose  that  I  am  somewhat 
elated.  Perhaps  I  am ;  but  I  pity  those  who  on  such  an 
occasion  indulge  in  all  the  customary  follies.  I  pity  those 
who  receive  not  such  a  gift  as  from  heaven,  and  who  hear 
not  the  divine  command.  Take  this  child  and  train  it  for 
heaven. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  old  Dr.  Hoge  saw  this 
child ;  that  he  who  preached  the  sermon  at  the  organization 
of  the  Synod  of  Virginia  laid  his  hands  on  him  who  preached 
at  its  centennial  meeting.  This  is  a  truly  apostolic  succes- 
sion. 

By  Dr.  Hoge,  doubtless,  the  child  was  baptized.  After 
the  death  of  his  father,  in  July,  1820,  Mr.  Hoge  resigned  his 
connection  with  the  college,  and  the  following  fall,  through 
the  influence  of  his  brother  James,  then  established  for  some 
years  at  Columbus,  removed  to  Ohio.  Here  he  became  pas- 
tor of  the  church  at  Hillsborough,  where  he  resided,  and  of 
Rocky  Spring)  in  Highland  county.  Here  were  born  his 
two  daughters,  Anne  Lacy,  January  22,  1821,  and  Elizabeth 
Poage  in  June,  1823;  the  former  named  for  his  wife's 
mother,  the  latter  for  his  own.  His  labors  here  were  de- 
voted and  successful.  But  his  health  was  not  equal  to  the 
arduous  toil  involved.     With  a  weak  constitution  inherited 


26  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

from  his  mother,  he  labored  especially  under  the  difficulty  of 
a  weak  voice.  His  brother  James  said  of  his  preaching: 
"As  a  pulpit  orator,  he  lacked  only  voice  and  physical 
strength  to  have  ranked  with  the  first  preachers  of  his  age. 
His  style  was  pure,  simple  and  energetic,  expressing  with 
great  exactness  the  nicest  shades  of  thought.  And  his  sub- 
ject matter  was  always  evangelical  truth,  presented  in  such 
a  wa)^  as  to  instruct,  and  at  the  same  time  deeply  affect  his 
hearers.  .  .  .  His  personal  appearance  as  a  public 
speaker  was  in  his  favor.  His  voice,  though  weak,  was 
pleasant.  In  stature  he  was  rather  below  the  medium, 
though  hardly  so  much  as  to  be  noticed."  On  account  of  in- 
creasing infirmity  from  a  complication  of  disorders,  he  was 
constrained,  in  October,  1823,  to  give  up  the  active  ministry 
and  accept  the  professorship  of  Mathematics  and  Natural 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Ohio,  at  Athens,  though  he 
preached  much  of  the  time  in  the  Athens  church. 

For  this  chair  he  had  peculiar  aptitude,  and  he  threw  him- 
self into  its  improvement  with  his  customary  enthusiasm. 
In  the  spring  of  1825  he  made  a  journey  to  the  east,  partly 
to  attend  the  General  Assembly  in  Philadelphia,  partly  to 
purchase  apparatus  for  his  department  and  visit  the  New 
England  colleges,  to  learn  the  most  approved  methods.  It 
was  a  great  journey.  April  23d,  he  had  reached  Marietta  on 
horseback,  and  was  waiting  for  a  rise  in  the  river ;  April  30th, 
he  had  reached  Pittsburg  in  a  gig,  the  expected  rise  not  hav- 
ing developed;  two  days'  staging  covered  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty-two  miles  to  Erie,  where  he  failed  to  find  a 
steamboat,  and  so  went  by  stage  two  days  more  to  Niag- 
ara; twenty- four  hours  by  canal  and  stage  to  Albany;  by 
steamboat  to  New  York;  and  again  by  steamboat  to  New 
Haven. 

He  was  greatly  delighted  with  New  Haven;  with  the 
handsome  streets,  the  schools  and  colleges,  the  churches  and 
the  elms.  On  Sunday  he  preached  in  the  afternoon  to  "the 
loveliest  collection  of  sinners"  he  had  ever  seen.     Professor 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  27 

Silliman  received  him  most  cordially  and  furthered  his 
mission ;  as  did  others. 

Finally,  on  May  20th,  he  reached  Philadelphia,  where  he 
received  his  first  letters  from  home,  and  is  ''much  pleased 
with  Drury's  writing;"  who  will  be  heard  from  at  more  than 
one  General  Assembly. 

At  the  Assembly  he  met  his  brothers,  James  and  John,  the 
latter  for  the  last  time  on  earth,  as  he  died  within  a  year. 
Within  another  year  he  joined  him  in  the  general  assembly 
•above. 

After  Mr.  Hoge's  return  from  this  journey  his  second  son 
was  born,  August  14,  1825,  and  named  William  James,  for 
his  uncles,  William  Lacy  and  James  Hoge.  This  completed 
the  family  circle;  with  "Cousin  Martha,"  who  lived  with 
them;  Elisha  Ballantine,  a  student  whom  he  had  received 
into  his  family  and  virtually  adopted;  and  Prudence  and 
Jeffrey,  the  servants.  They  were  living  now  in  a  convenient 
two-story  brick  house,  which  he  had  built  himself,  with  large 
porches  above  and  below,  enclosed  with  shutters.  Though 
but  a  short  walk  from  the  university,  which  was  in  full  view, 
lie  often  had  to  have  his  classes  at  his  house.  But  although 
a  great  sufferer  at  times,  he  was  genial  in  company ;  always 
cheerful,  and  sometimes  playful  in  his  family.  He  was 
versed  in  the  best  literature,  and  fond  of  poetry,  in  which  he 
had  some  skill  himself.  Mrs.  Hoge  was  gifted  in  song,  and 
had  rare  conversational  powers,  while  her  beautiful  house- 
keeping and  gracious  hospitality  added  to  the  attractiveness 
of  their  home.  They  had  not  the  pictures  and  ornaments 
that  now  add  so  much  to  the  charm  of  our  homes,  but  neither 
did  their  neighbors,  and  they  did  not  miss  them;  but  the 
charm  of  Christian  courtesy  and  Christian  love  was  there; 
which  is  far  better. 

But  over  this  happy  home  the  shadow  of  death  had  to 
come;  and  it  came  at  that  season  when  earthly  joys  are 
Ijrightened  by  the  memory  of  angels'  songs,  when  family  life 
is  blessed  by  the  memory  of  a  holy  childhood,  when  we  give 


28  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

gifts  to  one  another  in  memory  of  God's  unspeakable  gift  to 
us.     His  son  may  tell  the  story :  ^ 

His  health  had  been  feeble  for  several  years ;  he  was 
enfeebled  and  crippled  partially  by  some  disease  resem- 
bling rheumatism,  and  frequently  walked  with  an  usteady, 
limping  gait.  One  day,  as  he  sat  in  the  Philosophical  room 
in  the  college,  he  was  writing  a  note  on  a  book  resting  on 
his  knee,  when  he  was  suddenly  seized  with  a  violent  cramp 
in  the  leg.  Such  was  the  force  of  the  contraction  that  the 
thigh  bone  was  broken !  Had  the  bone  been  sound,  this 
could  scarcely  have  been  possible.  After  he  fell,  some  of 
the  students  in  the  adjacent  room  heard  his  groans,  and  the 
door  of  the  Philosophical  room  being  fastened  with  a 
spring  lock,  they  burst  it  open,  and  at  his  request  made  a 
litter,  and  carried  him  to  his  residence.  The  broken  limib 
was  set  by  a  skillful  surgeon,  but  never  united.  He  lin- 
gered about  a  fortnight,  and  on  Christmas  Eve  of  the  year 
1826,  finding  that  he  was  near  his  end,  he  summoned  his 
family  to  his  bedside  to  receive  his  dying  benediction.  I 
well  remember  the  night.  It  was  one  of  the  coldest  I  ever 
felt.  The  snow  lay  deep  on  the  frozen  ground.  The  wind 
blew  furiously.  Attending  friends  hovered  around  the 
fire;  but  my  father,  fevered  with  inward  heat,  ordered  the 
window  nearest  him  to  be  thrown  open.  The  fierce  wind 
sometimes  blew  the  dry  snow  into  the  room  (it  was  on 
the  lower  floor)  and  upon  his  bed.  But  while  everything 
was  tempestuous  without,  all  was  peaceful  within  that 
chamber  where  the  good  man  met  his  fate.  One  by  one, 
he  addressed  the  members  of  his  family;  first  his  wife, 
whom  he  had  ever  tenderly  loved  and  cherished,  and  to 
whom  he  had  never  spoken  a  hasty  word ;  earnestly  did  he 
commend  her  to  the  watch  and  care  of  a  covenant-keeping 
God.  And  then  he  gave  his  blessing  to  his  children,  as 
they  successively  approached  him ;  and  finally  the  servants 
were  called  in,  and,  addressing  them  by  name,  he  urged 
them  to  prepare  for  death  and  judgment.  When  these 
admonitions  and  partings  were  ended,  he  folded  his  hands- 
upon  his  breast,  closed  his  eyes,  and  continued  evidently 
engaged  in  prayer  until  the  hour  of  his  release  and  trans- 
lation came. 

*  Spragiic's  Annals,  Vol.  IV. 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  29 

So  deeply  frozen  was  the  ground  that  it  was  tedious 
work  to  dig  his  grave.  The  day  of  the  funeral  was  one  of 
intense  cold,  but  all  the  college  students  joined  in  the  pro- 
cession, walking  with  the  faculty,  next  the  bier,  as  if  chief 
mourners,  while  the  great  majority  of  the  citizens  of  the 
town,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  weather,  fol- 
lowed in  the  sad  march  to  the  grave,  lamenting  with  bitter 
tears  a  loss  that  seemed  to  them  irreparable. 

"Our  eldest  brother,"  wrote  his  sister,  long  afterwards, 
■''was  the  only  one  of  us  old  enough  to  appreciate  our  loss. 
He  was  sensible  and  thoughtful  beyond  his  years,  and  he 
tried  to  comfort  our  poor  mother,  when  one  day  he  found 
her  in  tears,  with  a  verse  from  the  Bible  which  he  had 
learned,  'Mamma,  don't  you  remember  the  Bible  says,  "He 
shall  deliver  thee  in  six  troubles,  and  in  seven  shall  no  evil 
touch  thee  "  ?  '  "  Blessed  .little  comforter;  these  are  the  first 
words  recorded  of  lips  that  were  to  pour  forth  such  abundant 
consolations. 

There  was  no  radical  or  immediate  change  in  the  outward 
fortunes  of  the  family  from  their  father's  death.  Besides 
the  house  they  lived  in,  their  father  left  some  other  means, 
and  their  mother,  who  was  an  admirable  manager,  by  taking 
a  few  boarders  from  among  the  college  students,  was  able 
to  provide  for  them  in  comfort.  "She  was  a  good  mother," 
says  her  oldest  daughter,  "watchful,  firm  and  tender,  and  if 
her  children  were  not  what  they  ought  to  have  been,  it  was 
through  no  lack  of  good  counsel  and  discipline.  I  think  we 
were  on  the  wdiole  obedient  and  well-mannered,  comparing 
my  recollection  of  what  was  our  average  conduct  with  what 
I  see  of  the  present  generation  of  children.  Our  eldest 
brother  alternately  entertained  and  tormented  us ;  he  was  a 
great  tease,  and  was  seldom  satisfied  until  he  had  brought 
us  to  tears.  Then  he  was  sorry,  and  would  exert  himself  to 
put  us  in  a  good  humor.  He  was,  in  our  opinion,  a  wonder- 
ful story-teller.  Night  after  night,  as  we  lay  upon  our  beds, 
the  sisters  in  one  room  and  the  brothers  in  an  adjoining 


30  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

room,  he  would  regale  us  with  marvellous  tales  long  after  we 
ought  to  have  been  asleep.  He  was  a  great  reader,  and  had 
an  excellent  memory,  and  some  of  the  tales  with  which  he 
charmed  us  were  drawn,  as  I  learned  afterwards,  from 
Shakespeare.  But  he  often  drew  entirely  upon  his  imagina- 
tion, and  was  no  less  interesting  then.  He  was  not  perfect, 
but  he  was  very  winning  in  manners,  very  intelligent,  and 
always  a  successful  student." 

There  are  many  references  in  early  letters  to  Moses'  con- 
stant reading,  and  he  used  often  to  say  that  he  did  not  be- 
lieve any  one  was  ever  so  happy  as  he  used  to  be  sitting  up  in 
the  cupola  of  the  university  in  the  summer,  when  the  students 
were  all  away,  reading  Maria  Edgeworth,  and  feeling  as  if 
he  were  the  monarch  of  the  globe.  But  he  would  not  often 
talk  about  his  boyhood.  When  asked  about  it  he  would  say 
that  there  was  so  little  in  it  in  which  he  took  pleasure  that 
the  subject  was  painful  to  him.  This  was  not  because  of 
outward  conditions.  In  these  he  was  happy  and  content. 
But  the  faults  of  his  childhood,  that  most  people  would  have 
thought  of  with  complacency  or  amusement,  were  with  him 
subjects  of  acutest  pain,  and  he  often  spoke  with  astonish- 
ment of  persons  repeating  with  relish  stories  of  youthful  in- 
discretion. Especially  when  his  life  was  devoted  to  com- 
forting others  in  their  sorrows  did  he  regret  that  he  had 
ever  given  any  one  needless  pain  by  his  boyish  propensity  to 
tease.  After  his  brother's  death  he  related  to  his  widow 
with  almost  an  agony  of  remorse  how  he  had  once  been 
tempted  to  tease  him  by  throwing  away  his  parting  gift  of 
a  little  stone  that  was  one  of  his  boyish  treasures ;  yet  he  had 
not  done  so,  but  had  kept  it,  and  kept  it  still. 

Of  his  boyish  faults  this  was  the  only  one  that  did  not 
lean  to  virtue's  side,  or  at  least  give  evidence  of  that  master- 
ful strength  of  character  that  enabled  him  to  overcome  all 
obstacles  in  the  pursuit  of  noble  ends. 

Once  at  the  house  of  their  physician,  who  lived  just  oppo- 
site, he  saw  a  book  that  interested  him,  and  asked  the  doctor 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  31 

to  lend  it  to  him.  "Yes,"  he  replied,  "if  you  will  take  good 
care  of  it  and  return  it  when  you  are  done  with  it."  He 
quietly  laid  it  down  and  walked  out  of  the  room  without  a 
word.  When  his  sister  asked  him  afterwards  why  he  had 
done  so,  he  said,  "He  might  have  known  that  I  would  take 
care  of  it  and  return  it;  I  always  do."  After  the  family  had 
been  broken  up  in  Athens,  he  paid  them  a  visit  at  Granville, 
where  they  were  living  for  the  education  of  the  girls.  The 
town  had  all  the  old  New  England  customs.  During  the 
sermon  on  Sunday,  Moses  happened  to  pick  up  a  little  book 
that  was  lying  in  the  pew  and  began  to  finger  its  pages 
absently,  when  he  was  startled  by  a  tap  from  the  long  staff 
of  the  beadle.  He  stalked  majestically  from  the  house,  and 
was  only  pacified  when  the  deacons  called  and  apologized  for 
the  over-zealous  beadle,  and  assured  him  that  they  were 
satisfied  that  a  son  of  Mrs.  Hoge  could  never  demean  him- 
self irreverently  in  the  house  of  God. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  home  in 
Athens  was  a  trouble  in  the  college  that  led  to  the  departure 
of  most  of  the  students,  and  deprived  Mrs.  Hoge  of  the  in- 
come from  her  boarders.  Some  of  those  who  had  lived  in 
her  house  entered  very  closely  into  the  life  of  the  family. 
Elisha  Ballantine  continued  to  live  with  them  after  the 
death  of  Mr.  Hoge,  rendering  services  in  compensation  for 
his  board,  as  did  his  brother  Henry,  who  had  now  joined 
him.  The  example  of  these  studious  boys  and  their  exer- 
tions to  acquire  an  education  must  have  had  a  stimulating 
effect  on  Mrs.  Hoge's  own  sons.  And  when  Elisha  went  to 
study  in  Germany,  and  Henry  caught  the  missionary  enthu- 
siasm at  Andover,  and  consecrated  his  young  life  to  the 
cause,  the  letters  of  Henry,  filled  with  missionary  zeal,  and 
of  Elisha,  telling  of  the  learned  lectures  of  Gesenius  and  Ne- 
ander,  and  the  saintly  conversation  and  fatherly  instruction 
of  Tholuck,  must  have  exerted  a  broadening  and  uplifting 
influence  upon  their  lives.  Another  one  of  their  household 
was  to  return  and  find  a  closer  tie — William  H.  Marquess, 


2,2  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

who  had  been  devoted  to  Mrs.  Hoge  as  to  a  mother,  and 
who  came  back  to  claim  Anne  Lacy  as  a  wife. 

Around  this  home  clustered  such  associations  that  its 
breaking  up  was  a  sad  trial ;  and  when  is  not  the  breaking  up 
of  a  home  sad?  When  William  had  returned  to  Athens  to 
college,  his  sister  Elizabeth  writes :  "I  wish  we  could  all  get 
together  in  the  old  house  and  run  over  all  the  rooms,  up 
cellar  and  down  cellar,  and  revisit  'every  loved  spot  that  our 
infancy  knew.'  Neither  would  we  forget  the  'moss-covered 
bucket'  that  still  hangs  (I  hope)  in  the  well.  I  wonder  if 
those  grinning  figures  still  enliven  Jejffrey's  closet  door. 
Moses  left  many  specimens  of  his  skill  in  red  pencil  marks 
on  one  of  the  doors.  I  think  one  of  the  characters  he  chose 
to  adorn  it  was  Andrew  Jackson."  And  when  William  be- 
came a  professor  in  the  university  and  occupied  that  very 
bouse,  Mrs.  Marquess  writes :  "With  almost  every  room  from 
attic  to  cellar  I  can  associate  some  scene  of  childish  joy  or 
sorrow.  The  sitting-room,  hallowed  by  the  memory  of  our 
father's  death;  the  dining-room,  where  we  generally  car- 
ried on  our  evening  plays,  and  where  I  held  my  first  party  on 
my  ninth  birthday ;  the  study,  where  we  were  all  so  fright- 
ened once,  when  Moses  pretended  to  be  dead,  and  lay  mo- 
tionless amid  our  cries  and  shakings  until  we  had  summoned 
mamma  and  several  visitors  who  soon  brought  him  to  life." 

Such  were  the  scenes  of  childhood  upon  which  Moses  is 
now  about  to  turn  his  back.  While  his  mother  and  the 
younger  children  are  to  go  to  Columbus,  it  has  been  arranged 
that  he  shall  go  to  his  Uncle  Drury  Lacy's  in  Newbern, 
N.  C,  who  had  proposed  to  take  him  and  prepare  him 
for  Hampden-Sidney  College.  It  was  in  1834,  when  he 
was  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  small  for  his  age,  that  he  set 
off  with  a  number  of  the  Southern  students,  "riding  a  large 
horse."  The  family  watched  him  as  long  as  they  could  see 
him ;  the  second  great  break  in  the  family  circle. 

For  young  Moses  Hoge  it  was  more  than  a  break ;  it  was 
an  epoch.     It  was  putting  away  childish  things  and  taking 


Birth  and  Boyhood. 


33 


on  the  independence  and  self-reliance  of  manhood.  We  can- 
not trace  the  route  followed,  except  that  he  seems  to  have 
gone  southward  through  Kentucky  into  Tennessee,  and 
crossed  the  mountains  into  North  Carolina,  rather  than  the 
short,  but  more  tangled,  route  through  Western  Virginia. 
For  a  time  he  had  companions,  but  one  by  one  they  parted 
for  their  several  ways,  and  he  was  left  alone.  He  had 
reached  the  swamps  of  Eastern  Carolina  when  he  was  seized 
with  a  burning  fever.  The  road  was  a  mere  clearing  through 
the  dense  forest  of  the  swamp,  drained  by  a  ditch  on  each 
side.  He  could  not  have  been  more  alone  in  the  primeval 
world.  But  at  last  he  came  to  a  cabin,  where  the  good 
w^oman  gave  him  a  place  to  lie  down,  and  administered  some 
hot  herb  tea.  While  he  lay  there  the  rain  began  to  patter 
upon  the  shed  roof,  and  then  to  descend  in  torrents.  His 
parched  skin  seemed  to  thirst  for  it,  and  with  his  accustomed 
resolution  he  called  for  his  horse.  The  woman  told  him  it 
would  be  certain  death  to  go  out  in  the  rain  with  such  a 
fever,  but  he  persisted  and  started  on  his  journey,  galloping 
through  the  rain  that  beat  coolingly  in  his  face,  and  that 
thoroughly  soaked  his  clothing.  Before  he  reached  Kinston 
he  fell  in  with  a  man  who  took  him  to  a  good  boarding  house 
and  summoned  a  physician,  and  himself  nursed  him  night 
and  day  until  he  was  well  enough  to  travel.  This  faculty  of 
winning  friends,  who  rendered  him  devoted  service  in  un- 
expected circumstances,  was  conspicuous  during  his  whole 
life.  In  this  case  his  friend  proved  to  be  a  professional  gam- 
bler, who  sometimes  came  to  Newbern  to  ply  his  trade,  and 
always  manifested  his  attachment  for  him.  We  know  no- 
thing of  his  after  life,  but  one  can  only  hope  that  He  who  said, 
"Inasmuch  as  3^e  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these 
my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me,"  found  a  place  for  him 
at  last  among  those  to  whom  He  says,  "Come,  ye  blessed." 

Newberji  was  the  old  colonial  capital  of  North  Carolina, 
and  here  the  young  Virginian,  who  had  always  felt  like  some- 
thing of  an  exile  in  Ohio,  foimd  a  refined  society  most  con- 


34  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

genial  to  his  tastes.  He  ever  afterwards  cherished  a  warm 
love  for  the  old  town.  The  quaint  colonial  houses,  with  their 
gardens  of  roses ;  the  deeply  ditched  streets,  shaded  by  long 
avenues  of  evergreen  oak ;  the  remains  of  Governor  Tryon's 
palace,  the  building  of  which  did  so  much  to  foment  the 
discontent  of  the  colony;  the  cemetery,  with  its  walls  of 
shell-rock  and  the  fast-fading  inscriptions  that  even  then 
seemed  old ;  more  than  all,  the  broad,  shining  river,  with  its 
vast  sweep  towards  the  sea— all  this  was  a  fadeless  picture 
in  his  memory.  Half  a  century  afterwards  he  repeated  with 
appreciation  the  pleasing  lines  of  a  youthful  friend : 

"  Regretful  waves,  well  may  ye  weep  and  sigh 
For  this  sweet  Eden,  as  ye  pass  it  by ; 
For  wander  where  ye  may,  ye  ne'er  will  kiss 
A  shore  so  bright,  so  beautiful  as  this." 

Nor  was  he  indifferent— as  what  boy  could  be?— to  the  crea- 
ture comforts  that  climate  and  soil  and  sea  and  river  con- 
spired to  lavish  so  abundantly  on  a  people  who  knew  how  to 
appreciate  them,  and  to  use  them  with  a  hospitality  as  lavish 
as  Nature's  own.  Writing  in  sportive  mood  to  his  sisters  of 
a  visit  that  he  made  with  his  Uncle  Drury  ^  five  years  after- 
wards, to  attend  a  meeting  of  Orange  Presbytery,  he  says, 
"I  did  not  enjoy  my  visit  there,  did  I  ?  Oh !  by  no  means,  not 
in  the  least,  as  Mr.  Richard  Swiveller  would  say.  Such  kuid 
o-reetings,  such  pretty  girls,  such  fat  oysters,  such  charming 
rock,  such  ro7ide  de  boeuf  and  cotclettes  de  moiiton  panee — 
to  say  nothing,  oh !  nothing  at  all,  of  strawberries  and 
oranges.  Uncle  Drury  and  I  had  accepted  invitations  to 
dine  and  sup  for  three  days  to  come  when  we  left  the  town." 
Here,  too,  he  first  acquired  his  love  for  the  sea.  When 
most  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world  was  done  in  sailing 
vessels,  there  was  much  more  commerce  from  the  smaller 
ports  than  now,  and  staunch  schooners  ran  in  and  out  of  the 
Neuse,  not  only  to  American  ports  near  and  far,  but  to  the 

^Then  removed  to  Raleigh. 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  35 

West  Indies  and  more  distant  lands.  Of  course  no  vessel 
came  in  that  he  did  not  know  it.  To  talk  to  the  captains 
about  their  voyages  and  adventures  and  the  lands  they  had 
seen  was  his  delight.  One  captain  promised  to  take  him  on 
his  next  voyage,  but  he  was  prevented  from  going.  The 
vessel  was  lost  with  all  on  board.  Nothing  daunted  he  seized 
the  next  chance  and  sailed  to  New  York,  when  he  was  leav- 
ing Newbern  (May,  1836),  and  went  thence  through  Phila- 
delphia and  Pittsburg  to  visit  his  mother  in  Ohio.  A  letter 
written  to  his  mother  on  shipboard  is  full  of  the  rapture  of 
the  sea.  In  his  uncle's  hall  there  hung  a  large  map  of 
the  world.  He  used  to  stand  before  it  by  the  hour,  finding 
the  location  of  all  the  places  of  which  he  heard  and  read, 
studying  the  routes  to  reach  them,  and  wondering  which  of 
them  he  would  be  able  to  visit  in  years  to  come. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Watson,  of  Dardenne,  Mo.,  a  friend  of 
his  Newbern  days,  and  the  author  of  the  lines  just  quoted, 
in  a  letter  written  when  they  were  both  dignified  ministers, 
ogives  us  a  glimpse  of  these  days : 

Mrs.  Greenleaf  surprised  me  by  telling  me  that  you 
loved  novelty  and  change.  It  did  not  appear  to  be  so  with 
you  when  you  were  a  boy.  You  appeared  to  be  well 
enough  satisfied  with  that  dear  lazy  old  Cuddyhunk,^  and 
were  always  a  cheerful  companion  of  such  a  prosy  fellow 
as  I,  with  whom  your  only  amusements  were  a  walk  up 
the  shore,  a  row  on  the  river,  and  candy  boiling  over  a 
dross  ^  fire.  True,  I  might  have  seen  the  first  budding  of 
the  roving  temper  of  your  mind  in  that  astounding  and 
adventurous  journey  on  which  you  led  me — me,  a  genuine, 
quiet  Cuddyhunkian  who  had  never  crept  but  a  mile  or  so 
from  home  to  gather  chinquepins  and  get  sweet  gum  and 

^  Cuddyhunk  was  a  name  given  in  derision  to  a  group  of  men  in 
Newbern  who  opposed  all  progress.  "Cuddy"  is  the  tiny  cabin  in  the 
forepart  of  a  sailing  vessel,  and  "hunk" — or  more  properly  "hunks" — 
signifies  a  miser.  The  nickname  was  subsequently  applied  to  the  town. 
Cf.  the  name  "Hunkers"  applied  to  the  ultra-conservatives  in  New  York 
in  1845. 

^  The  refuse  of  a  turpentine  still,  which  makes  a  very  hot  fire. 


36  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

honeysuckle  for  the  girls— that  journey  to  the  very  eastern 
bounds  of  Carolina,  to  the  very  verge  of  the  trackless 
ocean,  with  the  attending  exploring  expedition  up  the  sav- 
age banks  of  South  River.  But  then,  when  you  came  back 
to  Newbern,  you  seemed  to  relapse  naturally  into  its  native 
inertia,  and  to  resume  with  pleasure  your  familiar  walks 
on  the  long-discovered  shore. 

A  singular  association  for  a  boy  of  sixteen  was  his  friend- 
ship with  the  excellent,  but  eccentric,  elder  of  threescore  and 
ten.  Dr.  Elias  Hawes,  who  several  times  mentions  him  in  his 
journal : 

Friday,  February,  20,  1835.  Visited  Betsey  Always,  sick 
at  the  Poor  House.  Moses  Drury  Hoge,  who  was  with  me, 
and  carried  my  gun,  shot  a  sparrow. 

Shortly  afterwards: 

Mr.  M.  D.  Hoge  called  at  the  usual  hour,  and  we  went  on 
with  our  customary  study  of  the  Larger  Catechism  to- 
gether. We  have  arrived  at  the  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
first  question. 

And  again : 

Saturday,  April  4,  1835.  Male  prayer-meeting  at  Brother 
Oliver  Dewey's.  Mr.  Lacy  expressed  anxiety  for  his 
nephew,  Moses  Drury  Hoge,  and  entreated  us  to  pray  for 
him. 

While  going  to  school  in  Newbern  he  would  not  allow  his 
imcle  to  pay  his  tuition,  but  earned  it  himself  by  teaching  the 
primary  classes.  This  principle  he  followed  throughout  his 
college  and  seminary  course,  working  his  way  through  both, 
although  his  Uncle  Drury  and  his  Uncle  James  both  offered 
to  advance  him  the  money. 

Of  great  benefit  to  him  in  Newbern  was  his  uncle's  well- 
selected  library.  Dr.  Lacy  w^as  a  man  of  fine  literary 
taste,  and  not  only  had  the  best  authors  on  his  shelves,  but 
was  able  to  guide  his  reading  into  the  best  channels.     Bos- 


.^^^ 


Birth  and  Boyhood.  37 

well's  Life  of  Johnson  is  a  specimen  of  the  style  of  books  he 
then  read,  and  read  to  such  purpose  that  he  could  repeat  long 
passages  from  them  sixty  years  after. 

But  the  best  of  all  the  influences  that  entered  into  his  life 
in  Newbern  was  his  association  with  his  Uncle  Drury  him- 
self. His  sweetness  and  light  were  just  what  the  proud, 
sensitive,  high-strung  young  soul  needed,  to  show  him  the 
beauty  of  holiness  and  the  joy  of  a  life  spent  in  making 
others  happy.  On  seeing  him  again  after  several  years, 
Moses  wrote  his  mother :  "He  is  without  doubt  the  best 
specimen  of  a  man  I  every  saw;  frank,  generous,  sincere, 
affectionate;  but  his  finest  quality  is  his  perfect  freedom 
from  dissimulation  or  artifice  of  any  sort.  He  is  entirely 
transparent.  He  reminds  me  of  some  deep,  pure  river, 
through  whose  clear  depths  one  may  look  and  see  pearls  and 
gems  sparkling." 

In  1 89 1  the  sometime  Newbern  boy  revisited  the  old  town, 
full  of  years  and  honors,  and  his  Sunday-school  teacher,  Mr. 
Charles  H.  Slover,  a  short  while  before  his  death,  had  the 
happiness  of  entertaining  him  in  his  home  and  the  proud 
privilege  of  hearing  him  preach. 

Who  knows  the  value  of  a  boy  ?  A  Scotch  session  one  day 
sent  a  delegation  to  their  minister  to  complain  of  the  un- 
fruitfulness  of  his  ministry:  only  one  addition  to  the  com- 
munion that  year,  and  he  "only  a  boy."  The  good  man 
received  it  meekly,  and  could  only  say  that  he  "had  great 
hopes  o'  Robert."  That  day  the  boy  came  to  the  minister  to 
unfold  his  purpose  of  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  heathen. 
It  was  Robert  Moffat. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Student  Days. 

"So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 
So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  duty  whispers  low,  'Thou  must,' 
The  youth  replies,  'I  can.'" — Emerson. 

THE  love  of  Dr.  Hoge  for  his  alma  mater  was  one 
of  the  most  loyal  loves  of  his  life.  One  of  his  favorite 
themes  was  the  great  service  that  the  smaller  colleges  in 
general,  and  Hampden-Sidney  in  particular,  had  done  for 
church  and  country,  and  the  poor  return  that  had  been  made 
them  in  gifts  and  endowments.  He  was  once  driving  with  a 
lady  of  wealth  in  Baltimore,  when  she  asked  him  how  she 
could  give  a  large  sum  of  money  so  as  to  do  the  most  good. 
He  promptly  replied,  ''Endow  Hampden-Sidney  College." 
She  appeared  surprised,  but  when  he  poured  forth  a  torrent 
of  eloquent  facts,  showing  its  great  services  to  the  country 
with  its  small  equipment,  she  was  deeply  impressed,  and 
promised  to  give  it  her  serious  attention  on  her  return 
from  an  intended  visit  abroad.  When  she  returned,  it 
was  in  her  coffin,  which  he  was  summoned  to  commit  to 
the  earth. 

Elected  early  in  life  one  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  there 
was  no  duty  to  which  he  was  more  faithful,  and  nowhere, 
save  in  his  own  pulpit,  was  he  so  completely  king  as  on  its 
commencement  platform.  Many  years  ago  the  crowd  had 
become  disorderly,  and  the  president  was  vainly  trying  to 
address  the  graduating  class  amid  the  buzz  of  conversation 
and  laughter.  Appeals  and  reprimands  were  alike  vain,  and 
at  last  he  turned  to  Dr.  Hoge.  He  stepped  to  the  front 
of  the  platform ;  there  was  a  lull.  He  began,  "I  am  ashamed 
that  I  was  born  in  Prince  Edward  county" ;   a  deadly  hush. 


Student  Days.  39 

"These  exercises  will  be  completed  in  perfect  quiet,  and  if 
another  person  speaks,  I  will  adjourn  them  to  the  board 
room."  They  were  finished  without  further  interruption, 
and  at  the  close  Dr.  Hoge  said,  "I  am  proud  that  I  was 
born  in  Prince  Edward  county,"  and  sent  everybody  away 
happy  with  one  of  his  inimitable  speeches.  Some  of  his 
highest  flights  of  oratory  were  on  this  platform,  but  he  will 
perhaps  be  best  remembered  there  by  the  unpremeditated 
speeches  in  which  he  played  with  the  audience,  as  it  were, 
giving  free  vein  to  humor,  fancy,  reminiscence,  pathos ;  now 
diving  down  into  the  deep  things  of  life,  now  soaring  aloft 
on  the  highest  themes,  but  always  leaving  in  the  mind  and 
heart  the  radiant  gleam  of  the  beauty  of  holiness  and  the  in- 
spiration of  high  and  noble  living.  The  last  summer  of 
his  life,  though  sick  and  feeble,  he  could  not  be  kept  from 
the  meeting  of  the  board,  and  delivered  to  the  senior  class 
an  "inimitably  beautiful,  tender  and  cultured  address  of 
twenty  minutes,"  which  "would  have  made  the  reputation  of 
any  ordinary  man." 

Hampden-Sidney  College  was  born  in  the  heart  of  the 
Revolution,  and  named  for  the  two  English  patriot-martyrs, 
John  Hampden  and  Algernon  Sidney.  It  was  inaugurated 
by  Hanover  Presbytery,  which  with  feeble  resources  con- 
ceived and  executed  the  daring  project  of  founding  two  in- 
stitutions of  learning,  one  east  and  the  other  west  of  the 
mountains.  Both  live  to-day ;  one  as  Washington  and  Lee 
University,  the  other  as  Hampden-Sidney  College.  The 
founder  and  first  president  of  the  latter  was  Samuel  Stan- 
hope Smith;  among  its  incorporators  were  Patrick  Henry 
and  James  Madison.  Its  first  president  was  followed  by  a 
line  of  illustrious  successors — John  Blair  Smith,  Drury 
Lacy,  Archibald  Alexander,  Moses  Hoge  and  Jonathan  P. 
Cushing.  President  Cushing  was  the  first  layman  to  hold 
the  ofiice.  A  native  of  New  Hampshire  and  a  graduate  of 
Dartmouth  College,  he  had  been  secured  by  Dr.  Hoge 
for  the  chair  of  Natural  Science,  and  upon  the  death  of 


40  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Dr.  Hoge  was  marked,  by  his  abilities  and  his  devotion 
to  the  institution,  as  the  fittest  man  for  his  successor.  Giv- 
ing to  the  college  his  entire  time  and  energies — which 
his  predecessors,  with  their  excessive  ministerial  duties, 
had  not  been  able  to  do — he  raised  it  to  a  plane  of  pros- 
perity and  usefulness  far  in  advance  of  its  previous  attain- 
ments. 

Hither  came  Moses  Drury  Hoge  in  the  fall  of  1836,  hav- 
ing recently  passed  his  eighteenth  birthday.  To  him  the 
place  had  peculiar  associations.  In  the  line  of  its  presidents 
were  both  his  grandfathers.  Here  his  father  had  graduated 
and  afterwards  been  a  professor.  Nearby  was  the  home  of 
his  mother's  girlhood,  and  here  was  the  place  of  his  birth. 
He  had  recently  visited  his  mother  in  Granville,  Ohio,  and 
was  doubtless  told  many  tales  of  the  past,  and  freighted  with 
messages  for  the  living.  Here  was  the  home  of  her  first  cou- 
sin and  friend,  Mrs.  John  Holt  Rice,  with  whom  he  boarded ; 
not  far  away  was  the  home  of  her  brother,  Dr.  Horace  Lacy ; 
in  the  adjoining  county  of  Halifax  was  that  of  his  father's 
brother.  Dr.  Thomas  Hoge.  In  Powhatan  was  Montrose,  the 
home  of  his  mother's  mother,  Ann  Smith ;  still  the  home  of 
his  kindred.  All  of  these  were  to  be  homes  or  visiting  places 
for  him.  Though  practically  seeing  the  place  for  the  first 
time,  he  could  have  felt  no  stranger  here.  He  knew  that 
many  eyes  were  upon  him,  expecting  something  of  him. 
Even  the  family  servants,  full  of  love  and  loyalty,  had  a 
welcome  for  him  as  one  who  belonged  to  them,  and  of  whom 
they  expected  great  things.  After  emancipation,  one  of 
them,  who  had  no  claim  upon  him  except  that  he  had  be- 
longed to  the  family,  came  to  Richmond  with  the  reassuring 
information  that  he  was  not  going  to  "desert"  him.  and 
took  up  his  abode  with  him.  Being  sent  once  to  meet  Dr. 
James  H.  Brookes  at  the  railroad  station,  he  entertained 
him  as  he  drove  him  to  the  house.  "Well,  Marse  Jeems,  I 
hear  you's  become  a  gret  man  out  in  de  Wes'."  Dr. 
Brookes  made  some  modest  reply,  of  which  he  took  no  no- 


Student  Days.  41 

tice.  "I  tell  you  what  it  is,  Marse  Jeems,  one  thing  I've 
notis  'bout  our  family;  wharever  we  go  we  always  distin- 
guishes ourselves." 

President  Gushing  had  died  in  1832,  and  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  William  Maxwell,  a  brilliant  lawyer  who  had  at- 
tained the  highest  success  at  the  bar,  a  scholar  deeply  versed 
in  classic  and  English  literature,  an  orator  of  national  repu- 
tation, astonishing  the  distinguished  audience  of  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  Society  at  Yale  by  an  oration  of  masterly  power 
and  perfect  finish,  of  which  not  a  line  had  been  committed 
to  writing;  a  gentleman  of  that  polish  and  grace  of  manner 
that  comes  from  birth  and  wealth  and  culture;  a  devoted 
member  and  ruling  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church ;  a  man 
whose  large  fortune  had  been  used  freely  in  benevolent  and 
religious  enterprises.  By  a  sudden  reverse  of  fortune  he 
"had  lost  his  means,  and  not  caring  to  contend  at  the  bar  with 
the  men  of  a  younger  generation,  he  accepted  the  presi- 
dency of  the  college  as  an  honorable  means  of  livelihood 
and  a  noble  sphere  of  usefulness.  We  do  not  fail  to  call 
to  mind  more  recent  analogies.  He  was  just  the  man  to 
stimulate  the  enthusiasm  of  young  men  and  to  awaken 
high  ideals. 

It  was  the  custom  in  those  days  for  metaphysics  and  kin- 
dred branches  to  be  taught  by  the  president;  the  other 
departments  were  Natural  Science,  Mathematics,  and  the 
Languages. 

The  chair  of  Natural  Science  was  filled  at  this  time  by  the 
afterwards  celebrated  Dr.  John  W.  Draper,  and  in  the 
college  laboratory  are  still  shown  the  cameras  with  which 
he  took  the  first  daguerreotypes  from  living  subjects.  Fran- 
cis H.  Smith  was  professor  of  Mathematics,  having  been 
instructor  in  the  same  department  at  West  Point,  where  he 
graduated.  He  left  Hampden-Sidney  to  become  the  first 
superintendent  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  where  his 
distinguished  service  embraced  over  half  a  century.  The 
professor  of  Languages  was  Robert  C.  Branch,  strict  and 


42  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

thorough  as  an  instructor,  sensitive  to  all  the  charms  and 
refinements  of  classic  literature,  and  a  man  of  singularly 
lovely  character.^ 

^  An  advertisement  in  the  Watchman  of  the  South  of  October,  1840, 
gives  a  fuller  view  of  the  course  of  study  as  it  was  the  year  after  Moses- 
Hoge's  graduation: 

THE  Winter  Session  of  this  institution  will  commence  on  the- 
1st  day  of  November  next,  and  terminate  on  the  4th  Wed- 
nesday of  April  following. 

The  faculty  of  the  College,  and  other  teachers,  with  their 
several  departments  of  instruction,  are  as  follows : 

William  Maxwell,  President,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy, 
&c.,  &c. 

Robert  G.  Branch,  Professor  of  Ancient  Languages. 

Benjamin  S.  Ewell,  Professor  of  Mathematics. 

Daniel  P.  Gardiner,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  and"; 
Chemistry. 

Moses  D.  Hoge,  Tutor,  Teacher  of  the  Preparatory  Depart- 
ment. 

Samuel  W.  Watkins,  Teacher  of  Modern  Languages. 

The  Classical  course  of  instruction  occupies  four  years,  in 
each  of  which  there  are  two  sessions. 

The  studies  of  the  Freshman  and  Sophomore  years  are  the 
Latin  and  Greek  languages,  with  the  Classical  Literature  con- 
nected with  them ;  Arithmetic,  Algebra,  and  Geometry  in  all  its 
branches. 

Those  of  the  Junior  year  are  the  higher  Classics  and  Mathe- 
matics, Natural  Philosophy,  and  Chemistry,  (including  notices 
of  various  subjects  connected  with  it,)  Astronomy,  Geology, 
and  Botany. 

And  those  of  the  Senior  year  are  Mental  Philosophy,  Moral 
Philosophy,  (including  the  Evidences  of  Christianity.)  Civil 
Polity,  Political  Economy,  the  Law  of-  Nations,  Logic,  Rhetoric, 
and  Belle-Lettres. 

Besides  this  Classical  course,  there  is  also  an  English  course, 
occupying  three  years,  and  embracing  all  the  same  studies  with' 
the  exception  of  the  Ancient  Languages. 

Students  who  do  not  wish  to  engage  in  either  of  these  regular 
courses,  if  over  18  years  of  age,  and  duly  authorized  by  their 
parents  and  guardians,  may  pursue  the  studies  of  two  or  more- 
classes,  or  any  of  them,  at  the  same  time ;  but  only  and  always  in 
such  orderlv  manner  as  the  Faculty  may  direct,  and  subject  to  all 
the  generallaws  and  regulations  of  the  College  in  other  respects. 

The  discipline  of  the  College  is  intended  to  be  liberal,  but  at 
the  same  time  sufficiently  strict ;  as  gentle  and  paternal  as  pos- 
sible, but  always  vigilant  and  effective. 

Monthly  reports  of  the  general  deportment,  diligence,  and' 
proficiency  of  the  students,  (with  notices  of  particular  delin- 
quencies,) are  regularly  forwarded  to  their  parents  and  guar- 
dians, at  the  end  of  every  month. 

The  expenses  of  the  session  are — Board,  $60;  Tuition,  $30;; 
Room  Rent,  $6;  Servant's  hire,  $1.75. 

MOSES  D.  HOGE, 

Clerk  of  the  Faculty. 


Student  Days.  43: 

These  men  became  not  only  the  instructors,  but — except 
Dr.  Draper,  whose  removal  to  New  York  led  him  into 
different  paths — the  life-long  friends  of  the  young  student. 
Mr.  Maxwell  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  Richmond, 
engaged  in  eminent  literary  work  for  his  profession,  and 
his  widow  became  a  member  of  Dr.  Hoge's  church  until  her 
death,  which  was  not  long  before  his  own.  Professor  Branch 
and  Mr.  Hoge  married  sisters,  and  were  devoted  as  brothers. 
When  he  first  went  abroad,  his  letters  from  Rome  expressed 
his  longing  for  "Robert  Branch"  to  be  with  him  and  see 
what  he  saw.  With  General  Smith  he  frequently  had  cor- 
respondence, and  they  always  maintained  for  each  other  the 
highest  regard. 

Moses  Hoge  was  well  prepared  to  make  the  most  of  his 
advantages.  In  general  reading  and  literary  culture  he  was, 
at  matriculation,  far  in  advance  of  the  average  college  grad- 
uate; and  in  the  halls  of  the  Philanthropic  Society,  of 
which  he  became  a  member,  he  cultivated  assiduously  his 
gifts  of  speech.  He  must  have  been  well  advanced  in  the 
classics,  for  at  that  time  his  brother,  seven  years  younger, 
whom  he  was  always  upbraiding  for  devoting  himself  to 
pulleys  and  siphons  and  machinery,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
classics,  writes  him  that  he  was  reading  "the  sixth  book  of 
Virgil  and  had  come  to  'the  verb'  in  Greek,"  Although  he 
had  no  time  in  after  life  to  keep  up  his  classical  studies,  the 
familiarity  with  classic  literature  which  he  always  showed, 
and  his  readiness  in  classic  quotation,  indicated  a  high  de- 
gree of  attainment  in  his  college  days.  Of  course  language 
was  studied  very  differently  then  from  now.  It  was  less 
philological  and  more  literary.  As  some  one  put  it,  "Then 
men  learned  the  language  in  order  to  read  the  literature  ;. 
now  they  read  the  literature  in  order  to  learn  the  lan- 
guage." The  modern  method  certainly  makes  more  exact 
scholars  of  the  few,  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
the  older  method  did  not  impart  a  more  elegant  culture  to 
the  manv. 


44  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

For  natural  science  and  mathematics  he  had  no  special  in- 
chnation.  He  could  learn  them,  as  he  could  master  anything 
to  which  he  applied  his  mind,  and  he  had  a  keen  apprecia- 
tion of  truth  and  beauty  in  any  form.  But  he  could  never 
quite  appreciate  the  feelings  of  a  fellow  student  whose 
insight  into  a  geometrical  demonstration  was  always  an- 
nounced to  the  whole  college  by  a  resounding  guffaw. 

Something  of  his  habits  of  study  and  mode  of  life  we  may 
see  by  some  extracts  from  a  letter  to  his  younger  brother, 
written  during  the  second  year  of  his  college  course  (Feb- 
ruary 3,  1837)  : 

Study  as  much  as  you  please  in  mechanics— philosophy 
won't  hurt  you ;  but,  unless  you  expect  to  be  an  engineer  or 
a  wheelwright,  you  must  attend  to  the  languages  and  com- 
position.    There  is  a  book  in  two  volumes,  called  Pursuit  of 
Knowledge  under  Dimculties,  published  in  the  Library  of 
Entertaining  Knowledge,  which  contains  things  you  would 
like  to  read.    It  is  full  of  "steam,  levers,  astronomy,"  etc. 
If  you  can  borrow  it,  read  the  account  of  Ferguson,  who 
was  an  ignorant  shepherd  boy,  and  used  to  lie  on  his  back 
at  night  and  mark  the  position  of  the  stars  with^  a  thread 
and  beads,  and  who  cut  out  with  a  common  penknife  all  the 
wheels,  and  actually  constructed  a  watch  from  a  wooden 
block.     Read  the  account  of  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia; 
and  of  Dr.  Allen  Murray,  and  see  what  he  did  when  a  lit- 
tle boy  at  school.    I  have  lost  so  much  time  myself  that  I 
know  how  to  advise  others  from  experience.     I  am  now 
trying  to  make  up  for  lost  time  by  hard  study,  and  saving 
all  I  can.    I  rise  regularly  at  five  in  the  morning,  light  my 
fire  and  candle  and  study  hard  until  we  breakfast.    I  study 
or  recite  all  day  until  two  in  the  afternoon,  when  I  cut 
wood  or  walk  for  an  hour  or  so.    I  go  to  bed  at  ten  o'clock, 
and  sleep  seven  hours.    At  the  first  of  the  session  I  slept 
nine  or  ten  hours,  but  happening  to  read  that  the  difference 
between  rising  at  five  and  at  seven  in  forty  years  amounted 
to  ten  years,^  I  turned  over  a  new  leaf. 

^  Of  course,  this  must  have  been  calculated  on  the  basis  of  ivorking 
hours. 


Student  Days.  45 

There  is  another  thing  which,  although  I  mention  it  last, 
ought  to  come  first,  and  is  the  most  important  of  all.  Take 
your  slate  and,  if  you  can,  calculate  the  length  of  time  com- 
pared with  eternity. 

The  letter  concludes  with  an  exhortation,  introduced  by 
the  last  quoted  sentence,  to  attend  to  the  things  of  the  soul. 
It  is  significant  because  at  this  time  he  had  not  himself  made 
a  public  profession  of  religion.  That  he  was  not  indifferent 
to  the  subject,  the  letter  itself  shows;  but  for  the  reasons 
why  he  had  not  made  such  a  profession  we  must  turn  to  a 
letter  addressed  to  his  mother  the  following  fall : 

I  cannot  precisely  analyze  the  feeling  or  explain  the  cause 
of  my  unwillingness,  or  rather  shrinking  from  communi- 
cating my  feelings  on  several  subjects.  I  suppose  it  is 
an  unfavorable  symptom  that  I  am  not  communicative  on 
the  subject  of  religion,  since  out  of  the  abundance  of  the 
heart  the  mouth  speaketh.  I  believe  I  am  particularly 
averse  to  doing  so  in  letters.  I  remember  thinking  when  I 
was  quite  small  that  the  commonplace  phrases  in  the  letters 
you  used  to  receive  from  pious  friends  had  a  hypocritical 
air,  and  were  put  in  only  to  fill  up  the  sheet  when  news  and 
originality  had  run  out;  and  I  have  seen  some  letters  at 
Mrs.  Rice's  which  recalled  my  old  feelings.  To  my  mother 
I  know  I  should  have  no  hesitation  in  opening  my  mind, 
especially  on  this  subject.  If  I  have  such  anxieties  for  my 
brother  and  sisters,  what  must  be  the  feelings  of  a  parent? 
I  cannot  say  that  I  am  a  Christian.  I  can  only  say  that  upon 
a  close  examination  I  always  find  many  things  that  dis- 
quiet and  depress  me;  yet  I  am  never  left  without  some 
hope  that  I  have  experienced  a  change  of  heart.  At  those 
times  when  I  feel  most  comfort,  I  have  constant  alterna- 
tions of  doubts  and  hesitation,  and  dread  the  possibility  of 
making  a  favorable  decision  and  lapsing  into  security, 
while  I  may  be  deceived  as  to  the  grounds  on  which  that 
imaginary  safety  is  based.  Since  I  have  been  here,  I  have 
had  clearer  views  of  the  enormity  of  sin,  not  only  in  the 
abstract,  but  my  own.  Although  remorse  and  deep  peni- 
tence in  themselves  cannot  be  called  graces,  yet  I  think  they 
are  to  be  desired  and  prayed  for,  because,  unless  we  feel 


^6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

our  guilt,  and  the  certainty  of  those  miseries  which  are  the 
wages  of  sin,  how  can  we  desire,  or  even  perceive  the  ne- 
cessity of,  a  Saviour?  The  stronger  the  sense  of  our 
undone  and  hopeless  condition,  the  more  is  the  value  and 
suitability  of  a  refuge  felt.  I  have  felt  most  bitterly  the 
guilt  of  disobeying  the  direct  command  of  our  Saviour, 
"Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me,"  and  have  had  several 
severe  struggles  with  regard  to  my  duty,  as  one  sacra- 
mental occasion  after  another  has  rolled  around.  Yet  I  be- 
lieve under  existing  circumstances  I  have  done  right.  It 
was  the  practice  of  the  primitive  churches  to  require  years 
of  trial  before  they  admitted  any  one  to  church  member- 
ship, and  as  it  is  the  most  solemn  event  in  our  existence 
(except  death)  I  think  too  much  care  and  deliberation  can- 
not be  used.  Until  the  time  come  when  I  think  it  my  duty 
to  do  so  [come  to  the  communion],  I  hope  to  be  able  to 
exhibit  a  Christian  walk  and  character,  and  show  my 
principles  by  my  fruits,  rather  than  by  professions.  I  feel 
that  a  new  tie  exists  between  Sister  Lacy  ^  and  myself.  I 
can  hardly  hope  that  as  a  family  we  can  all  be  ever  united 
here,  but  if  we  can  be  a  family  in  heaven,  this  temporary 
division  is  not  worth  a  thought.  Elizabeth  and  William 
no  doubt  were  duly  affected  by  the  step  which  their  sister 
took  before  their  eyes.  Elizabeth  has  always,  I  believe, 
been  under  religious  impressions.  William  is  naturally 
thoughtful,  and  I  doubt  not  often  reflects  on  the  "chief 
end"  of  his  creation,  and  the  purpose  for  which  he  was 
allowed  to  live  in  this  world.  I  hope  he  will  not  think  he  is 
too  young  to  attend  to  this  matter,  unless  he  thinks  he  is 
too  young  to  die. 

Thoughtful,  serious  young  man:  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
working  deeply  in  that  heart.  Perhaps  he  needed  some  one 
just  then  to  point  him  out  of  himself  to  Christ,  that  he  might 
find  the  grounds  of  his  hope  less  in  what  he  felt  and  more  in 
what  Christ  had  done ;  but  of  this  much  we  may  be  sure,  the 
step  when  taken  will  be  for  life  and  eternity.  No  stony- 
ground  hearer  this.  The  soil  is  deep  and  the  work  will  be 
thorough :  and  the  harvest  ?    Shall  we  say  a  hundred-fold  ? 

^  Of  whose  reception  into  the  communion  of  the  church  his  mother 
"had  just  written  him. 


Student  Days.  47 

The  terms  of  the  parable  are  Hmited  by  natural  possibilities. 
There  are  no  such  limitations  in  the  spiritual  world,  and  we 
shall  see  what  we  shall  see. 

This  letter  was  written  from  Raleigh,  N.  C,  on  his  way 
to  Granville  county,  where  he  was  to  teach  a  school  at  "Red 
Hill,"  the  home  of  Mr.  Andrew  Read,  of  whose  kindness  and 
courtesy  he  makes  appreciative  mention.  He  had  entered  the 
junior  class  at  college,  and  had  only  taken  one  year  of  the 
course,  when  he  felt  the  need  of  a  more  thorough  preparation 
in  preparatory  studies,  and  felt  that  the  best  way  to  attain  it 
was  by  teaching.  Dr.  Draper  and  others  of  the  Faculty  tried 
to  dissuade  him,  and  hinted  that  he  would  take  the  first 
honor  if  he  continued  straight  through ;  but  he  knew  what 
he  needed,  and  had  the  manhood  to  form  his  resolution  and 
act  upon  it.  "I  feel  better  qualified,"  he  wrote  his  mother,  "to 
teach  Greek,  Latin,  astronomy,  etc.,  than  the  elementary 
branches  of  the  common  school.  Now,  when  is  all  this  to  be 
learned?  The  advanced  studies  of  the  senior  year  could 
engross  all  my  time,  and  how  would  it  look  for  a  graduate 
to  go  to  studying  English  grammar  and  arithmetic?" 

His  situation  he  described  as  a  pleasant  one;  the  family 
were  "polite  and  respectful,"  and  "Red  Hill  Seminary  and  its 
venerable  head  have  a  very  respectable  neighborhood  repu- 
tation." He  taught  six  hours  a  day  "in  a  log  school-house 
sixteen  feet  square ;"  "the  children,  though  not  smart,  study 
well,  and  have  made  considerable  progress."  He  received  his 
l)oard  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  ten  months.  "I 
will  have  a  fine  opportunity  for  study,  as  I  have  seldom  seen 
a  more  pleasant  room.  It  is  in  the  second  story,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  house;  has  a  fine  fire-place,  and  a  chimney  that 
draws  well — the  first  thing  I  noticed,  as  I  was  terribly  an- 
noyed by  a  smoking  chimney  at  Mrs.  Rice's.  My  floor  is 
carpeted.  ...  I  never  lived  in  the  country  before,  and 
expect  to  feel  a  little  lonesome  sometimes.  It  is  not  exactly 
low  spirits  that  I  have  now  and  then,  but  an  indescribable 
something  that  I  know  is  not  happiness." 


48  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

He  repeatedly  speaks  of  Mrs.  Read's  kindness,  sending" 
dainties  to  his  room  when  his  appetite  was  poor,  and  looking 
out  for  his  health  and  comfort  like  a  mother.  He  also  speaks 
of  the  delightful  living  and  the  abundance  of  all  good  things, 
even  in  the  every-day  fare  of  the  family.  He  attended  a 
public  dinner  at  "the  festival  of  the  Gaston  and  Raleigh 
Railroad,"  at  which  there  were  "a  hundred  lambs  on  the 
table." 

The  habits  of  the  country,  at  this  time,  were  a  great  shock 
to  him,  accustomed,  as  he  had  been,  to  the  moral  atmosphere 
of  Athens,  O.,  and  Prince  Edward,  Va.  Horse-racing,  cock- 
fighting  and  gambling  occupied  the  thoughts  of  the  young 
men  of  means,  while  once,  while  he  was  there,  the  young  men 
had  a  "gander  pulling,"  a  sport  the  brutality  of  which  he 
had  never  even  conceived  of.^  Yet,  while  he  shrank  from 
whatever  was  low  and  defiling,  he  was  not  a  "soft,"  and 
often  astonished  the  young  "sports"  by  beating  them  at  their 
own  games.  He  was  struck  with  the  fact  that  in  many  fam- 
ilies there  was  such  a  contrast  between  the  sons  and  the 
daughters : 

Very  often  you  will  find  the  girls  modest,  well-informed, 
refined,  and  the  young  men  boisterous,  lazy,  fox-hunting 
ninnies.  I  went  to  Mrs.  D.'s  about  sundown  on  Friday. 
After  tea,  the  girls  and  I  were  engaged  in  a  very  pleasant 
chat  when  their  great,  overgrown,  sandy-haired  brother 
yelped  out,  like  one  of  his  own  hounds,  "Mr.  Hoge,  many 
coons  in  Ohio?"  "I  hear  blooded  horses  mighty  scarce  in 
your  country;  I  just  like  to  show  you  my  filly."  And  so 
every  pause  was  filled  in — and  he  did  not  wait  for  pauses — 
with  his   "double-triggers,"   "pointers,"   "fish-traps,"   etc. 

^  As  a  mark  of  the  progress  of  humanity,  it  may  be  well  to  give  his- 
description  of  this  sport:  "They  take  a  [live]  gander,  strip  his  head  and 
neck  of  feathers,  grease  it,  and  tie  him  to  the  top  of  a  post.  Two  men  are 
stationed  at  the  post  with  cowhides.  A  company  of  young  men,  mounted 
on  horses,  successively  ride  by  at  full  speed,  and  as  they  dart  by  make 
a  grasp  at  the  head  of  the  gander.  Those  at  the  post  ply  their  cowhides 
to  keep  the  horses  at  full  speed  as  they  pass.  The  one  who  pulls  the 
head  of  the  gander  off  wins  the  purse !" 


Student  Days.  49 

At  last  he  edged  a  draught  board  between  two  verses  o£ 
Mrs.  Sigourney,  and  challenged  me  to  play,  saying  it 
was  "as  easy  to  tree  a  bear  up  a  dogwood  as  to  beat  him 
at  draughts."  Glad  to  make  peace  on  any  terms,  I  con- 
sented, and  beat  him  three  games  out  of  four.  "Never 
mind,"  said  he,  "you  say  you  can  shoot  a  rifle ;  we'll  take  a 
few  rounds  with  old  Betsy."  So,  after  breakfast  the  next 
morning,  he  stuck  up  a  target  on  the  ice-house  door, 
marked  off  seventy  yards,  took  careful  aim  from  a  rest, 
fired,  and  missed  the  door !  As  I  was  taking  aim,  he  said, 
"What!  you  ain't  going  to  shoot  without  a  rest?"  "Oh! 
yes,"  said  I,  "we  Ohio  backwoodsmen  never  miss  off- 
hand." So  I  cracked  away  and  cut  the  paper.  After  beat- 
ing him  at  three  jumps  and  fixing  his  gun-lock,  I  am 
looked  on  with  admiration,  and,  by  mere  luck,  got  the  repu- 
tation of  being  the  best  sportsman  in  the  county. 

While  in  Granville,  he  made  a  visit  to  the  Buffalo  Springs.* 
"As  I  rode  over  to  the  Springs,"  he  wrote  his  mother,  "on  a 
descendant  of  the  great  Hereford,  in  my  smart  green  close- 
body,  check  waistcoat  and  white  tights,  I  thought  I  must  be 
a  right  trim-looking  fellow ;"  but  when  he  saw  the  dandies 
at  the  Springs,  with  their  many  suits,  and  the  exact  corres- 
pondence of  all  parts  of  their  dress,  when  they  "wore  a  blue 
coat,  having  stock  and  handkerchief  also  of  blue,"  he  felt 
quite  thrown  into  the  shade.  He  was  not  averse  to  a  little 
gaiety  himself,  and  occasionally  joined  in  a  dance,  but  had 
little  patience  with  man  or  woman  that  thought  of  nothing 
else.  "The  morals  of  this  country,"  he  wrote  of  his  visit  to 
the  Springs,  "will  compare  favorably,  I  suppose,  with  the 
state  of  things  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  or  Charles  I.  It  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  people  of  Ohio  are  about  two  centuries 
in  advance  in  some  things,  but  as  inferior  in  others  as  Lake 
Mattamusket  to  blue  Erie  itself."  In  other  words,  he  liked 
the  serious  tone  of  life  he  saw  in  Ohio,  and  the  open- 
handed  hospitality  and  generosity  of  the  Virginians  and 
Carolinians.  In  one  little  town  that  he  visited — quite  a 
centre   of   old-time   society   and   fashion — there   was    "but 

^  Now  known  as  the  Buffalo  Litliia  Springs. 


50  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

one  member  of  the  church,  and  he  a  member  of  the  Jockey- 
Club." 

In  the  midst  of  surroundings  so  unfavorable  for  develop- 
ing his  serious  impressions,  he  cultivated  the  more  earnestly 
the  society  of  such  Christian  people  as  he  knew.  With  espe- 
cial warmth  does  he  speak  of  Dr.  S.  L.  Graham,  then  the 
pastor  of  a  group  of  churches  in  his  neighborhood,  and  after- 
wards one  of  his  theological  instructors  at  Union  Seminary. 
He  writes  his  mother : 

I  spent  a  very  pleasant  day  and  night  with  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Graham.  Of  all  characters  on  the  earth,  I  love  and  respect 
a  sensible,  kind-hearted  Presbyterian  minister.  Dr.  Gra- 
ham was  run  in  the  good  old  mould.  He  thinks  Uncle 
James  is  just  the  thing. 

In  February  (1838)  he  wrote: 

Presbytery  meets  in  Oxford,  twenty  miles  to  the  south  of 
us.  A  few  days  will  intervene  between  presbytery  and  the 
meeting  of  the  Seminary  Board,  and  Uncle  Drury  is  ex- 
pected to  spend  the  time  here  assisting  Dr.  Graham  in  a 
protracted  meeting.  The  sacrament  will  then  be  adminis- 
tered, and  if  my  life  is  spared,  I  hope  to  occupy  a  seat  at 
the  table  of  the  Lord.  I  know,  my  dear  mother,  you  will 
join  in  the  prayer  that  it  may  be  a  profitable  season  to  me. 
I  think  it  very  important  that  the  -first  approach  should  be 
made  in  a  right  frame  of  mind.  I  feel  that  no  event  that 
has  ever  happened  to  me  is  as  solemn  and  important  in  its 
results  as  the  time  when  the  sinner  acknowledges  pub- 
licly his  submission  to  God,  and  takes  the  vows  of  the 
church  upon  him.  May  God  give  me  grace  to  make  a  more 
unreserved  surrender  of  all  that  I  have  and  am,  at  that 
time,  that  I  have  ever  done  before !  I  had  rather  be  the 
meanest  and  humblest  Christian  on  earth  than  to  enjoy  all 
the  pleasures  the  world  can  give,  even  if  I  could  enjoy 
them  forever.  I  hope  I  do  not  say  this  in  any  spirit  of  self- 
confidence,  for  if  I  have  mortified  my  pride  and  made  any 
progress  in  grace,  of  all  the  agents  I  have  been  the  most 
passive  and  inefficient. 


Student  Days.  51 

Again  (May  i6th)  he  wrote: 

On  the  Sabbath,  I  trust,  I  was  enabled  to  commit  my  all 
into  the  hands  of  the  Saviour,  of  whose  broken  body  and 
shed  blood  I  for  the  first  time  partook.  It  was  with  fear 
and  trembling  that  I  took  my  seat  with  the  Lord's  professed 
followers ;  yet  I  believe  it  was  good  for  me  to  be  there. 
May  God  give  me  more  faith  and  zeal,  and  complete  the 
change  which,  I  humbly  hope,  he  has  commenced  in  this 
unfeeling  heart  of  mine.^ 

Of  that  first  commimion  he  recalled  that  he  passed  the 
v^diole  time  in  weeping.  He  could  not  analyze  his  feelings, 
nor  explain  just  why.  His  tears  did  not  lie  near  the  surface, 
but  his  emotions  were  deep. 

That  fall  he  returned  to  college  for  his  senior  year.  The 
break  in  the  course — generally  such  a  disadvantage  to  a 
student — he  turned  into  an  advantage,  by  making  the  teach- 
ing of  his  pupils  a  review  to  himself  of  the  elementary 
studies,  while  in  private  he  reviewed  his  more  advanced 
studies  in  the  determination  to  ''graduate  at  least  passably." 
Instead,  too,  of  destroying  that  class  feeling  which  grows  up 
from  pursuing  the  whole  course  with  the  same  class,  he 
retained  the  warmest  affection  for  the  members  of  both  the 
classes  with  which  he  was  associated,  and  inspired  the  same 
life-long  affection  in  them.  Among  the  friends  of  his  col- 
lege days  one  thinks  first  of  the  great  theologian  at  whose 

^  It  is  impossible  to  say  with  certainty  where  this  first  communion  took 
place.  The  above  extract  is  from  the  midst  of  an  account  of  a  meeting 
of  West  Hanover  Presbytery  at  Charlotte  Court-house.  He  had  accom- 
panied his  Uncle  Drury  to  Hampden-Sidney  as  he  went  to  the  meeting 
of  the  board,  and  thence  went  to  Charlotte  Court-house  to  attend  the 
preaching  during  presbytery.  On  the  other  hand,  my  uncle  told  me, 
only  a  few  years  ago,  that  his  first  communion  was  in  North  Carolina. 
It  may  be  that  he  was  received  into  the  church  at  the  time  of  his  Uncle 
Drury's  visit,  but  for  some  reason  the  sacrament  was  not  celebrated  ac- 
cording to  the  expectation  expressed  in  his  February  letter,  so  that  he 
did  not  partake  of  the  communion  until  the  opportunity  was  offered  at 
Charlotte  Court-house.  His  name  is  on  the  roll  of  Shiloh  Church,  in 
Granville  county,  N.  C. 


52  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

grave  he  stood  just  a  year  before  his  own  departure  and  pro- 
nounced his  glowing  eulogy  upon  the  scholar  and  thinker, 
and  his  tender  tribute  to  the  man  and  friend — Robert  L. 
Dabney;  of  the  genial  and  scholarly  editor  of  the  Central 
Presbyterian,  William  T.  Richardson,  whose  last  years  were 
spent  again  in  intimate  association  with  him,  and  to  whom 
also  he  paid  the  last  sad  tribute  of  love ;  of  the  courtly  Chris- 
tian gentleman,  Charles  S.  Carrington,  so  long  an  elder  in 
his  church;  of  the  honorable  lawyer  and  upright  judge, 
Frank  D.  Irving ;  of  Thomas  S.  Bocock,  the  first  Speaker  of 
the  Confederate  House  of  Representatives;  and  of  that 
saintly,  lovable,  gifted  soul,  who  never  seemed  quite  at  home 
in  this  world,  John  G.  Shepperson.  He  survived  them  all, 
and  he  loved  them  all  to  the  end.  When  Dr.  Richardson 
died,  he  remarked  with  great  feeling,  "That  is  the  last  mem- 
ber of  my  class."  Dr.  Dabney  was  still  living,  but  he  be- 
longed to  the  class  with  which  he  began,  not  that  with  which 
he  graduated. 

The  first  public  speech  made  by  Mr.  Hoge,  so  far  as  is 
known,  was  the  Fourth  of  July  oration,  during  one  of  the 
years  of  his  course.  The  college  had  a  summer  term  at  that 
time,  and  the  Fourth  of  July  was  celebrated  with  consider- 
able eclat.  There  was  an  oration  by  one  of  the  students,  and 
it  was  one  of  the  honors  of  the  college  to  be  appointed  to 
deliver  it.  After  the  public  exercises  there  was  a  banquet, 
attended  by  the  distinguished  men  of  the  surrounding  coun- 
ties, where  wit  and  wine  flowed  freely.  The  only  reference 
to  this  performance  is  in  a  letter  from  one  of  his  sisters  to 
her  brother  William,  "Moses  writes  that  he  is  to  deliver  the 
Fourth  of  July  oration;  when  will  you  be  doing  anything 
so  grand?" 

In  August,  1839,  ^^^s.  Hoge  writes  to  William:  "  Your 
brother  writes  us  that  he  has  passed  his  final  examinations, 
and  that  the  first  honor  was  given  him.  He  did  not  seem 
to  feel  so  much  elation  at  his  own  success  as  sympathy  for 
a  young  man  who  expected  the  honor," 


Student  Days.  53 

The  faded  commencement  programme  is  preserved,  dated 
September  25,  1839.  The  salutatory  is  delivered  by  Francis 
D.  Irving,  of  Cumberland;  the  Philosophical  oration  by 
William  C.  Carrington,  of  Charlotte;  the  Patriotic  oration 
by  Charles  S.  Carrington,  of  Halifax,  on  "The  Present  Pol- 
icy and  Future  Fate  of  Arbitrary  Governments" ;  the  Clio- 
sophic  oration  by  William  T.  Richardson,  on  "Modern  Elo- 
quence." The  Masters'  orations  were  delivered  by  J.  Ver- 
non Cosby,  of  Prince  Edward,  and  J.  W.  Clapp,  of  Abing- 
don. Other  orations  were  "The  Spirit  of  Independence," 
by  Samuel  Branch,  Jr. ;  "The  Responsibilities  of  American 
Youth,"  by  Willis  Wilson,  of  Cumberland;  and  "Political 
Morality,"  by  William  B.  Shepard,  of  Buckingham.  Wil- 
liam H.  Anderson,  of  Nottoway,  and  John  A.  Lancaster,  of 
Buckingham,  made  orations  whose  subjects  are  not  given. 
Last  came  "The  Desecration  of  Literature,  with  the  Valedic- 
tory Addresses,"  by  Moses  D.  Hoge,  of  Prince  Edward,  and 
the  exercises  closed  with  the  conferring  of  degrees  and  the 
baccalaureate  address  by  the  president.  The  late  Judge  F. 
R.  Farrar,  of  Amelia,  was  present  at  this  commencement, 
and  a  few  years  ago  described  it  in  a  letter  to  the  Richmond 
Dispatch: 

Dr.  Hoge  won  the  first  honor,  and  was  the  valedictorian. 
While  at  college  he  gained  a  widespread  reputation  as  an 
orator.  I  have  often  heard  the  members  of  his  society  say 
that  his  speeches  in  debate  were  brilliant  and  powerful. 
A  great  crowd  was  at  the  commencement  to  hear  the  youth- 
ful orator.  My  father  and  mother  carried  me  with  them ; 
I  was  a  mere  boy,  possibly  not  over  ten  years  of  age.  The 
president  of  the  college  introduced  the  speaker.  He  was  a 
tall  youth,  lithe  and  graceful  in  every  movement.  His 
cheeks  were  pale  and  colorless.  There  was  some  nervous- 
ness in  his  manner.  I  was  too  young  to  understand  all 
that  he  said,  but  there  was  something  in  his  parting  words 
that  impressed  me — his  tone,  his  look,  the  melting  cadence 
of  his  voice.  I  gazed  up  in  my  mother's  face;  her  eyes 
were  filled  with  tears.  I  pressed  closer  to  her  side,  and 
wept  bitterly. 


54  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

His  own  account  is  as  modest  as  it  is  brief,  "I  could  write 
you  a  volume  about  commencement.  The  day  was  delight- 
ful, neither  cool  or  hot ;  clear,  with  a  bracing  breeze  stirring. 
The  speeches  were  neither  too  long  nor  too  short;  no  one 
was  wearied,  and  all  left  in  good  spirits.  The  general  remark 
was  that  it  was  the  most  pleasant  commencement  ever  wit- 
nessed in  that  church."  The  letter  was  to  his  mother,  and 
was  filled  with  an  earnest  appeal  to  her  to  come  and  visit 
him,  for  now  he  had  been  elected  tutor  in  the  college ;  every 
one  was  asking,  "When  is  your  mother  coming  to  see  us?" 
He  would  take  her  to  Montrose  at  Christmas,  and  return 
with  her  in  the  fall  to  Tennessee. 

It  was  not  to  be.  She  was  never  to  see  Virginia  again. 
Already  the  insidious  malady  that  was  to  end  her  earthly 
life  had  begun  its  inroads.  The  family  were  now  in  Gallatin, 
Tenn.  On  leaving  Granville,  they  had  removed  to  Zanes- 
ville,  where  Anne  Lacy  was  teaching,  and  where  in  the 
spring  of  1838  she  was  married  to  William  H.  Marquess. 
In  the  following  winter  they  removed  to  Gallatin,  where  Mr. 
Marquess  took  charge  of  a  seminary  for  girls,  and  where 
Mrs.  Hoge's  only  sister,  formerly  Mrs.  Brookes,  nov/  Mrs. 
Rogers,  lived.  William  was  left  in  Ohio  to  enter  college  at 
Athens. 

All  that  year  the  scattered  family  were  anticipating  the 
reunion  in  the  fall.  It  was  one  of  those  bright  hopes  that 
Heaven  permitted  to  be  fulfilled. 

In  June,  after  the  spring  vacation,  which  he  had  spent  at 
his  uncle  Thomas  Hoge's,  Moses  writes  his  sister : 

The  morning  I  left,  Uncle  Thomas  gave  me  a  clean- 
limbed filly,  daughter  of  a  mare  he  bought  from  Colonel 
William  R  Johnson,  Medley  and  Diomede  stock,  Alonzo 
and  American  Eclipse  being  her  sire  and  grandsire.  I  shall 
keep  her  at  the  college  and  train  her  during  the  summer  for 
my  journey  next  fall.  The  session  will  end  September  9th, 
and  vacation  will  continue  to  November  ist,  so  that  in 
three  months  I  expect  to  set  my  face  Tennessee-wards.  If 
it  is  possible,  William  must  be  there.     I  received  a  long 


Student  Days.  55 

letter  from  Mr.  Ballantine  last  week  in  which  he  says  that 
William  is  popular  with  the  faculty  and  students ;  that  he 
is  studious,  learns  well  in  all  departments,  and  is  very 
promising.  This  to  me  was  indeed  glad  tidings.  Give  him 
credit  for  all  this  when  you  write.  It  will  stimulate  him 
if  you  let  him  know  that  you  think  well  and  expect  much  of 
him.  I  am  going  to  send  you  the  Albion  or  Southern  Lit- 
eracy Messenger.  W.  C.  Rives  and  Henry  Clay  are  ex- 
pected at  Cumberland  Court-house  next  month ;  also  the 
Honorable  Mr.  Benton  and  others  at  a  Democratic  dinner 
in  Farmville.    I  will  try  to  see  them  all. 

This  afternoon  I  am  going  up  to  Uncle  Horace's  to  spend 
Saturday  and  Sunday,  and  exercise  my  Horse  a  little. 
Horse  should  always  be  spelled  with  a  capital  letter,  being 
the  noblest  of  created  animals,  man  not  excepted ;  for  look 
at  the  Hottentots,  the  Hindoos,  the  Laplanders,  the  Loco- 
focos,  and  tell  us  if  they  maintain  the  same  uniform  re- 
spectability of  character  that  horses  do  !  A  Horse,  whether 
in  Shetland,  Arabia,  the  South  American  plains,  or  in  civ- 
ilized lands,  is  a  gentleman.  But  I  did  not  mean  to  fly  the 
track  at  such  a  canter. 

Who  that  has  seen  him  galloping  by  on  "Lucille"  on  crisp, 
bright  mornings  before  breakfast,  or  that  has  seen  his  delight 
in  showing  off  her  accomplishments,  and  making  her  come 
at  his  call,  does  not  recognize  the  man  they  knew  in  the 
youth  who  wrote  that  letter  ?  Or  rather,  I  should  say,  recog- 
nize the  perennial  youth,  in  the  man  they  knew  and  loved  ? 

His  determination  to  hear  Clay,  Rives,  Benton,  and  others 
brings  out  another  characteristic  that  he  never  lost — his 
eagerness  to  learn  from  men,  as  well  as  books.  A  little  later 
he  speaks  of  going  to  Farmville  daily  to  the  sessions  of  the 
Methodist  conference,  that  he  may  hear  their  leading  men, 
and  learn  their  methods.  While  at  college  he  went  to 
"Roanoke,"  the  home  of  Randolph,  to  see  it  just  as  it  was 
in  his  life  time,  and  on  his  visit  to  Tennessee  he  went  to  the 
"Hermitage"  to  see  Andrew  Jackson.  The  year  before  this 
he  made  a  horseback  trip  to  the  Valley  of  Virginia  with  Dr. 
Graham,  who  had  now  become  a  professor  in  the  seminar)^, 
and  while  he  writes  glowingly  of  the  scenery  and  the  won- 


56  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

clers  of  nature,  he  seems  most  interested  in  "old  Father 
Mitchell :"  ^  "lie  is  now  ninety-three  years  old,  and  perhaps 
the  oldest  minister  in  the  United  States  who  preaches  regu- 
larly. He  dresses  just  as  they  used  to  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century — long-waisted  coat,  standing  collar,  broad  skirts, 
shorts,  knee  buckles  and  top-boots.  He  looks  more  like  an 
Egyptian  mummy  than  any  living  creature  I  ever  saw,  yet  he 
thinks  nothing  of  mounting  his  horse  and  riding  forty  miles 
in  a  day.  .  .  .  All  through  this  country  I  found  family 
friends.  Some  one  said  of  me,  '  He  is  mighty  like  his 
mother,'  but  the  old  man  said,  'No,  he  favors  Davies  the 
most.'  " 

There  might  well  be  room  for  difference  of  opinion  on  this 
point.  He  derived  his  stature  from  the  Lacys,  his  spare  form 
from  the  Hoges.  The  warm  bronze  of  his  complexion  was 
from  his  mother,  and  he  had  his  mother's  eyes.  But  there 
was  in  his  eyes  a  flashing  intensity  that  came  from  his 
father,  as  did  the  aquiline  cast  of  his  features.  He  did  not 
inherit  his  mother's  musical  gifts,  as  did  his  brother  and  sis- 
ters, but  through  her  he  derived  the  wonderful  voice  of  his 
grandfather  Lacy,  with  just  enough  of  the  nasal  quality  of 
Dr.  Hoge  to  produce  those  resonant  trumpet  blasts  that 
gave  variety  and  power  to  its  marvellous  silver  cadences. 
His  gesture,  too,  had  its  beauty  from  Mr.  Lacy ;  its  nervous 
intensity,  and  those  strange,  impressive,  angular  motions, 
that  seemed  all  his  own,  from  Dr.  Hoge.  From  both  sides 
he  was  entitled  to  quick  sensibilities  and  tender  emotions,  but 

'  Shortly  before  Father  Mitchell  died,  he  told  Mr.  Shepperson  this 
interesting  fact  in  connection  with  the  Rev.  Drury  Lacy,  which  Mr. 
Shepperson  thus  communicates  to  his  friend : 

"  In  the  early  part  of  their  ministry,  he  and  your  Grandfather  Lacy 
made  an  agreement  that  each  should  remember  the  family  of  the  other 
at  the  throne  of  grace  every  Sabbath  morning.  This  was  adhered  to 
strictly  as  long  as  your  grandfather  lived — at  the  time  of  his  death  all 
his  children,  except  your  Uncle  Drury,  and  all  of  Mr.  Mitchell's  children, 
thirteen,  were  hopefully  pious." 

The  exception  was  underscored  because  he  had  long  beer,  a  devoted 
minister  of  the  gospel.  He  was  converted  under  Mr.  Nettleton,  after 
his  father's  death. 


Student  Days.  57 

his  extraordinary  range  of  emotional  expression  came  from 
the  Lacys,  and  his  no  less  extraordinary  power  of  repression 
and  self-command  from  the  Hoges.  So,  too,  the  penetration 
and  vigor  of  his  intellect,  his  perseverance  in  investigation 
and  his  thoroughness  in  mastery  of  a  subject,  came  from  his 
father's  side,  while  the  refinements  and  charm  of  his  literary 
quality  were  the  marked  characteristics  of  his  mother's  fam- 
ily. In  a  word,  strength  and  power  came  most  largely  from 
the  Hoges,  beauty  and  grace  from  the  Lacys.  From  both 
sides  he  inherited  a  dignity  of  character,  a  conscientious 
devotion  to  duty,  and  a  sense  of  obligation  to  do  something, 
and  be  something  in  the  world. 

The  fall  came  around,  and  the  family  was  once  more  to- 
gether. The  father,  it  is  true,  was  gone,  but  the  eldest 
daughter  held  in  her  happy  arms  a  tiny  pledge  that  this 
■good  stock  was  not  to  perish  from  the  earth. 

Of  that  reunion  we  have  no  record  of  incident,  for,  as  all 
were  together,  no  letters  were  exchanged.  But  it  remained 
a  bright  memory  for  all  the  days  that  were  to  come,  though 
over  its  brightness  at  the  time  there  hung  the  shadow  of 
death.  All  knew  that  it  was  to  be  the  last.  We  can  only 
imagine  the  mother's  pride  and  joy  in  resting  her  fond  eyes 
once  again  upon  her  two  boys,  one  the  thoughtful  young  man 
with  a  sense  of  life's  responsibilities  upon  him,  the  other  a 
laughing,  loving  boy,  full  of  all  hope  and  promise;  both 
overflowing  with  a  love  and  tenderness  that  each  expressed 
in  his  own  way.  Brothers  and  sisters  found  new  joy  in  each 
other,  and  opened  to  each  other  their  hearts  expanding  with 
new  experience  and  aspiration.  But  the  centre  of  the  circle 
was  the  couch  of  the  sufferer,  and  all  dreaded  the  hour  of 
parting.  Parting  is  always  sad ;  sometimes  it  is  tragic.  But 
it  had  to  corne,  and  was  gotten  over  somehow;  as  such 
things  are.  Just  afterwards  Mr.  Marquess  wrote  William 
(October  27,  1840)  : 

On  my  return  from  the  stage  to  your  mother's  room,  I 
found  her,  as  I  expected,  under  deep  feeling  at  the  idea  of 
having  in  all  probability  taken  a  final  earthly  leave  of  her 


58  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

sons.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  she  became  com- 
posed. She  has  since  manifested  much  tenderness  of  feel- 
ing towards  you  and  Moses,  making  frequent  mention  of 
your  names,  and  sending  her  blessing  after  you.  ...  I 
think  your  mother  continues  to  decline. 

At  last  he  writes,  on  November  20,  1840: 

Your  good  mother  continued  to  decline  until  the  day 
before  yesterday,  when  at  eleven  o'clock  a.  m.  she  breathed 
her  last.  She  died  in  peace  and  retained  her  reason  to  the 
last,  and,  until  a  few  moments  before  she  ceased  to  breathe, 
was  able  to  utter  her  thoughts.  Just  before  she  died  Eliza- 
beth told  me  to  ask  her  if  she  knew  us.  I  did  so,  but  she 
gave  no  sign.  I  then  asked  her  if  she  knew  her  Saviour 
and  felt  his  presence.  She  gently  nodded  her  head,  pleas- 
antly raised  her  eyes  to  heaven,  and  expired. 

We  received  your  letter  on  the  6th,  and  one  from  Moses  ^ 
by  the  same  mail.  Your  mother  was  desiring  to  hear  from 
"her  boys"  once  more  before  she  died,  and  was  gratified. 
She  wanted  you  and  Moses  to  know  how  well  attended  she 
was  during  her  illness,  particularly  as  she  became  worse 
after  you  left.  Your  Aunt  Rogers  was  her  "Angel  of 
Mercy,"  as  she  termed  her." 

She  was  buried  in  Gallatin,  but  was  afterwards  removed 
to  her  husband's  side  in  Athens.  Her  death  brought  to  fru- 
ition the  seed  that  her  life  had  sown.  Early  in  1841  William 
vv^as  received  into  the  church  in  Athens,  and  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  year  Elizabeth  united  with  the  church  in  Galla- 
tin.    She  thus  announces  it  to  William : 

At  the  last  communion  season,  I — the  last  of  my  family 
in  every  good  word  and  work — united  with  the  church.  I 
know  that  you  will  rejoice  at  this.  Moses  says  in  relation 
to  it,  "Although  our  mother  has  left  us,  the  happy  fruit  of 
her  prayers  is  even  now  experienced  on  the  earth.  The 
children  of  parents  passed  into  the  skies,  may  it  ever  be  our 
constant  ambition  to  imitate  them,  even  as  they  imitated 
their  Lord  and  ours.     You  bear  the  name,  and  that  you 

^  Moses'  letter  was  from  New  Orleans.  To  avoid  the  long  horseback 
ride  throiigh  Tennessee  and  Virginia,  he  went  by  river  steamboats  to- 
New  Orleans,  and  by  sea  to  Norfolk. 


Student  Days.  59 

may  inherit  all  the  virtues  without  the  trials  of  our  de- 
parted mother,  is  the  highest  wish  I  can  make  for  you." 
Much  more  he  adds  about  our  mother,  her  character  as  a 
mother,  a  woman  and  a  Christian ;  it  is  all  worthy  of  being- 
in  print,  and  when  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Moses  D. 
Hoge,  D.  D.,  are  being  written,  this  letter  shall  find  place — 
part  of  it,  at  least. 

Dear  young  enthusiast,  prophesying  with  the  insight  of 
love  that  which  should  come  to  pass,  but  which  your  eyes 
were  never  to  see,  your  wish  should  be  fulfilled  had  not  the 
letter  perished,  save  for  the  quoted  fragment.  But  long 
years  after  another  letter  (to  Mrs.  Marquess)  was  written 
that  reproduces  the  thoughts  of  that  time,  and  it  shall  take 

its  place : 

Richmond,  Va.,  November  18,  1878. 

My  Dear  Sister:  It  is  thirty-eight  years  to-day  since 
our  precious  mother  died  ! 

And  now,  as  I  pause  a  moment  and  look  at  the  sentence  I 
have  written,  it  has  an  incredible  look  about  it.  Not  in- 
credible that  she  is  dead,  but  that  nearly  forty  years  have 
fled  since  that  event.  More  years  than  our  father  lived  in 
his  whole  life ! 

It  seems  so  strange  that  this  can  be  true;  that  I  could 
have  lived  so  many  years,  and  yet  feel  as  fresh  and  strong 
and  young  (of  course  I  am  not  jesting  now)  as  I  do  this 
day.  Thirty-eight  years  since  our  mother  died,  and  our 
father  only  lived  to  see  thirty-three ! 

He  died,  as  you  know,  on  Christmas  night,  in  1826.  I 
remember  the  scene  well.  When  I  think  of  it,  I  feel  as  if  it 
may  have  occurred  just  when  it  did  or  five  hundred  or  a 
thousand  years  ago.  After  a  certain  lapse  of  time,  I 
imagine,  when  we  come  to  analyze  our  feelings — or  rather 
our  sense  of  duration — we  entirely  lose  our  ability  to  con- 
ceive of  it,  and  it  becomes  utterly  vague  and  indefinite.  (I 
have  never  seen  this  referred  to  by  any  writer,  but  I  have 
often  experienced  it.)  The  impression,  the  conviction  of 
being  still  young,  owing  to  perfect  physical  health  and 
perennial  freshness  of  feeling — all  the  poetry  and  romance 
of  life  being  as  vivid  as  ever,  makes  these  old  dates  seem 
like  a  reproach,  a  painful  reality.  A  few  weeks  of  sickness, 
or  rather  the  real  giving  away  of  the  constitutional  vigor. 


6o  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

would  change  all  this  and  make  these  long  remembrances 
seem  entirely  natural,  and  I  do  not  forget  that  I  may  at 
any  time  be  brought,  and  that  very  suddenly,  too,  to  the 
realization. 

I  have  kept  some  of  the  journals  I  wrote  while  a  college 
student — ^though  I  do  not  keep  any  now — and  I  find  this 
record:  "January  6,  1841.  Last  night  I  learned  by  the 
Watchman  of  the  South''  (Dr.  Plumer's  paper)  "that  my 
dear  mother  died  on  the  i8th  of  November."  (In  those 
days  news  was  transmitted  so  slowly  that  now  it  appears 
almost  absurd.)  "She  is  now  with  her  Saviour,  with  the 
church  triumphant,  with  her  father  and  mother  and  hus- 
band, with  more  relations  and  friends  than  she  left  behind. 
She  has  bidden  an  eternal  adieu  to  the  pains  and  toils  and 
disquietudes  of  this  weary  life — and  hers  were  many — and 
has  gone  to  the  place  where  she  is — 

"  '  No  more  to  sigh  nor  shed  the  bitter  tear, 

While  circling  time  moves  round  in  an  eternal  sphere.' 

"Dear  mother!  shall  it  not  henceforth  be  my  highest 
ambition  to  follow  in  your  footsteps  ?  God  grant  that  your 
parting  words,  'It  is  not  for  ever,'  may  prove  true ! 

"  '  My  mother,  when  I  learnt  that  thou  wast  dead, 
Say,  wast  thou  conscious  of  the  tears  I  shed? 
Hovered  thy  spirit  o'er  thy  sorrowing  son?' 

"Long  shall  the  anniversary  of  thy  death  be  consecrated 
to  the  remembrances  of  thy  virtues."  (I  am  grateful  to  say 
that  this  feeling  is  as  strong  in  my  heart  as  it  was  thirty- 
eight  years  ago.)  "Were  I  to  say  that  my  mother  was  the 
most  perfect  being  I  ever  knew,  the  remark  would  be  as- 
cribed to  filial  partiality,  but  the  thought  may  be  cherished 
in  my  inner  sanctuary  of  the  bosom  which  no  eye  but  that 
of  God  can  penetrate." 

Your  ever  affectionate  brother, 

Moses  D.  Hoge. 

"  Happy  he, 
With  such  a  mother !    faith  in  womankind 
Beats  with  his  blood,  and  trust  in  all  things  high 
Comes  easy  to  him,  and  tho'  he  trip  and  fall, 
He  shall  not  blind  his  soul  with  clay." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
Preparation  for  the  Ministry, 

"The  path  by  which  we  twain  did  go, 

Which  led  by  tracts  that  pleased  us  well, 
Thro'  four  sweet  years  arose  and  fell. 
From  flower  to  flower,  from  snow  to  snow, 
*  *  *  * 

"  When  each  by  turns  was  guide  to  each, 
And  Fancy  light  from  Fancy  caught. 
And  Thought  leapt  out  to  wed  with  Thought 
Ere  Thought  could  wed  itself  to  Speech." — Tennyson. 

NEAR  the  end  of  Mr.  Iloge's  college  course,  his  kinsman^ 
the  Rev.  Dr.  B.  M.  Smith,  then  a  young  minister,  ap- 
proached him  on  the  subject  of  the  ministry.  It  was  a  subject 
to  which,  with  his  ancestry  and  his  gifts,  his  serious  turn  of 
mind  and  his  religious  principles,  he  must  already  have  given 
thought.  But  his  answer  was  remarkable.  He  replied  that 
he  did  not  think  it  would  be  worth  while  for  him  to  study 
a  profession,  as  he  did  not  expect  to  live  long  enough  to 
practice  it.  At  this  period  of  his  life,  and  for  many  years 
after,  he  was  of  a  bilious  temperament  that  was  not  only 
itself  depressing,  but  that  suggested  the  type  of  disease  that 
had  so  early  ended  his  father's  life.  Could  a  flash  of  the 
future  have  fallen  on  his  vision,  revealing  a  half  century's 
ministry  crowned  by  such  demonstration  as  is  ordinarily 
awarded  only  to  heroes  returning  in  victory  from  the  field  of 
battle,  or  statesmen  whose  beneficent  rule  has  brought  na- 
tions to  honor  and  prosperity,  how  would  the  pale,  despon- 
dent youth  have  leaped  to  his  task.  But  God  leads  us  on  by 
other  means,  and  without  such  vision  the  mood  passed.  His 
resolve  must  have  been  made  during  the  first  year  of  his 
tutorship — the  year  before  his  mother  died ;  for  he  wrote  to 
her  (July  14,  1840),  alluding  to  it  as  a  settled  question: 


62  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Mr.  Maxwell  was  at  my  room  the  other  day,  and  urged 
the  old  subject  of  my  remaining  in  the  college.  He  said  he 
did  not  wish  me  to  abandon  my  determination  to  engage  in 
nothing  that  would  prevent  my  studying  divinity,  but  in- 
sisted that  both  might  be  done,  and  that  the  one  would  be 
auxiliary  to  the  other.  He  referred  me  to  my  grandfathers, 
and  Drs.  Smith,  Rice,  Alexander,  and  others,  who  had  been 
eminently  useful  both  as  preachers  and  instructors.  I  have 
taken  the  matter  into  serious  consideration. 

When  he  left  his  mother's  bedside  the  following  fall,  it 
Avas  to  enter  upon  his  studies  in  Union  Theological  Seminary 
in  addition  to  his  duties  in  the  college. 

No  letter  of  the  time  tells  us  just  w^hat  were  his  thoughts 
in  reaching  this  conclusion,  but,  in  a  letter  written  in  his  early 
ministry  to  his  younger  brother,  we  see  that  he  makes  the 
grounds  of  a  call  to  the  ministry  to  consist  in  fitness  for  the 
work,  the  good  to  be  accomplished,  and  the  need  for  prop- 
erly qtialified  ministers;  in  other  words,  the  divine  call 
works  upon  a  rational  mind  through  rational  means.  He 
writes : 

Dr.  McGuffey  was  here  some  months  since,  and  we  had 
several  long  conversations  about  you  and  your  prospects. 
We  both  regretted  that  you  had  not  yet  seen  your  way  clear 
to  commence  the  study  of  theology.  We  agreed  that  your 
qualifications  and  constitution  of  mind  seemed  peculiarly 
to  fit  you  for  usefulness  in  the  ministry.  You  are  perfectly 
aware  of  the  fact  that,  should  you  be  instrumental  in  the 
conversion  of  one  sinner,  you  would,  in  "saving  a  soul 
from  death,"  accomplish  more  real  good  for  time  and  for 
eternity,  than  you  could  in  any  secular  calling,  however 
useful  and  honorable.  You  must  be  aware,  too,  that  God 
has  endowed  you  with  such  gifts  as  seem  to  point  to  the 
propriety  of  engaging  in  his  service  in  that  very  mode. 
Never  before  has  the  church,  especially  our  Southern 
Church,  so  much  needed  ministers  of  the  right  stamp  and 
order  of  talents.  My  dear  brother,  be  careful  how  you 
disregard  the  teachings  of  God's  providence  and  the  opin- 
ions of  those  who  are  entitled  to  your  consideration. 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry.  63 

The  Faculty  of  the  Seminary  had  been  reorganized  shortly 
before  Mr.  Hoge  began  his  studies.  The  venerable  Dr. 
Baxter,  who  had  succeeded  Dr.  Rice  as  professor  of  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  was  still  at  its  head,  but  two  of  the 
professors,  adhering  to  the  New  School,  were  removed  by 
the  Board,  and  their  places  were  filled  by  Dr.  Samuel  L. 
Graham  in  the  chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History  and  Polity, 
and  the  Rev.  Francis  S.  Sampson  as  Assistant  Instruc- 
tor. Mr.  Hoge's  previous  relations  with  Dr.  Graham  we 
have  already  seen.  Mr.  Sampson  was  then  in  the  youthful 
promise  whose  golden  prime  shed  such  lustre  upon  the  insti- 
tution. Of  Dr.  Baxter,  as  he  remembered  him,  Dr.  Hoge 
spoke  in  his  reminiscences  at  the  seventieth  anniversary  of 
the  Seminary  in  1894: 

Dr.  Baxter  was  senior  professor  in  this  Seminary  when 
T  came  as  a  student  to  Hampden-Sidney  College.  That 
picture  [pointing  to  the  portrait  on  the  wall]  does  not  give 
a  correct  idea  of  the  face  or  form  of  that  noble  man.  It 
fails  to  represent  the  majesty  of  his  real  presence.  Nor 
do  the  fragments  of  his  writings  which  have  been  pre- 
served give  any  adequate  idea  of  his  intellectual  power. 
How  much  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  commit  to 
writing  the  great  thoughts  which  gave  such  dignity  and 
impressiveness  to  his  extempore  discourses.  There  were 
heroes  before  Agamemnon,  but  "they  had  no  poet,  and 
they  died."  Baxter  had  no  reporter,  and  the  world  is 
poorer  because  his  discourses  have  not  been  transmitted 
to  us.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  hear  many  of  the  most 
distinguished  divines  in  our  own  and  in  foreign  lands.  I 
have  heard  few  who  surpassed  Dr.  Baxter  in  argumenta- 
tive force,  in  pathos,  or  in  pulpit  effectiveness.  He  had  one 
unique  peculiarity.  Often  in  the  midst  of  a  logical  passage 
his  cheek  would  flush,  his  face  quiver,  and  great  tears 
would  flow  down  his  manly  face.  What  in  the  world  could 
be  so  strangely  affecting  Dr.  Baxter  in  that  argumentative 
paragraph?  It  was  that  he  possessed  a  wonderful  power 
of  anticipating  what  he  was  going  to  say.  Before  he  had 
finished  the  logical  discussion,  he  was  thinking  of  some 
tender  scene  in  the  life  of  our  Lord  which  he  intended  to 


64  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

depict.  Before  he  got  to  the  place  he  was  trembhng  with 
emotion  at  the  sight  of  the  dear,  sad  cross,  standing  full  in 
his  view,  in  its  mournful,  unutterable  glory,  and  then 
flowed  the  irrepressible  tears — tears  that  touched  all  hearts 
and  prepared  them  for  what  was  coming.  I  do  not  know 
of  any  other  speaker  who  ever  affected  his  hearers  in  a 
similar  way.  As  a  teacher  in  the  class-room  his  method 
was  peculiar.  If  a  young  man  stated  an  untenable  position, 
and  especially  if  he  was  self-confident,  it  was  the  Doctor's 
method  never  to  answer  him  at  all,  but  to  ask  him  question 
after  question,  as  a  lawyer  would  cross-question  a  witness, 
until  he  made  him  wind  himself  up  completely  and  so  dis- 
cover his  error ;  and  then  the  good  Doctor  would  shake 
all  over  with  a  gentle  laugh,  not  derisive,  but  kindly  (he 
weighed  between  two  and  three  hundred),  and  his  end  was 
gained,  and  the  pupil  loved  the  preceptor  all  the  more  for 
the  kindly  confutation. 

Dr.  Baxter  died  in  the  first  year  of  Mr.  Hoge's  theological 
course,  and  then  began  Dr.  Samuel  B.  Wilson's  twenty-eight 
years  of  useful  and  honorable  service. 

The  standard  of  scholarship  among  the  students  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  high.  Or  perhaps  our  young  student,  with 
his  own  high  ideals,  had  not  yet  acquired  that  large  charity 
of  judgment  for  which  he  was  afterwards  so  conspicuous. 
His  friend,  John  G.  Shepperson,  then  just  out  of  the  Sem- 
inary, gives  sympathy  mingled  with  gentle  rebuke  in  his 
reply  to  one  of  Mr,  Hoge's  letters : 

I  was  much  amused  with  the  account  you  gave  me  of 
the  debate  in  the  Seminary.     The  chastisement  you  gave 

H was  just;   but  before  proceeding  further  with  this 

kind  of  work,  you  ought  to  deliberate  thoroughly  whether 
you  are  willing  to  be  the  Ishmael  of  the  institution.  He 
who  makes  it  his  business  to  expose  presumptuous  ignor- 
ance will  find  ample  employment,  but  small  thanks.  Were 
there  a  prospect  of  improvement,  the  chance  of  profit  might 
be  worth  the  hazard,  but — (Proverbs  xxvii.  22  will  com- 
plete the  sentence,  though  in  stronger  terms  than  are  ap- 
plicable to  the  case). 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry.  65 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  so  bad  an  account  as  to  the  standard 
of  Hterary  attainments  in  the  Seminary.  If  our  professors 
will  not  guard  the  sacred  office  from  the  intrusion  of  un- 
educated, or,  what  is  still  worse,  half-educated  men,  I  do 
hope  our  presbyteries  will.  This  has  been  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  sources  of  those  difficulties  from  which  we  are 
just  beginning-  to  recover.  Let  the  same  course  be  per- 
sisted in,  and  their  renewal  and  permanency  are  inevitable. 

But  if  Mr.  Hoge  found  the  scholarship  of  most  of  his 
fellow-students  disappointing,  there  were  a  number  to  whom 
he  was  warmly  attached,  and  there  was  one  to  whom  his  soul 
was  knit  as  the  soul  of  Jonathan  to  David.  John  Parsons 
Greenleaf,  born  of  a  well-known  New  England  family,  had 
come  to  Virginia  on  account  of  his  health,  making  his  home 
in  Nottoway  county,  where  he  became  a  member  of  the 
church  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Theodorick  Pryor.  He  en- 
tered Union  Seminary  the  year  that  Moses  Hoge  became 
tutor  in  the  college.  Both  were  men  of  quick  perceptions, 
delicate  sensibilities,  w^ith  all  the  mental  and  spiritual  sym- 
pathies of  richly  endowed  natures,  and  their  friendship  was 
immediate  and  constant.  In  discoursing  with  one  another  of 
the  high  themes  that  occupied  their  thoughts  and  the  high 
ideals  that  filled  their  souls,  they  drew  from  one  another  the 
richest  and  best  that  was  in  their  hearts.  Their  earthly 
intercourse  was  brief.  Mr.  Greenleaf  went  abroad  upon  the 
completion  of  his  studies  in  the  hope  of  recuperating  his 
strength  in  the  south  of  France,  before  entering  upon  the 
work  to  which  Presbytery  had  licensed  him.  He  was  greatly 
benefited,  and  embarked  for  his  return  on  the  same  ship  in 
which  he  had  gone  over — a  sailing  vessel,  chosen  for  the 
sake  of  the  prolonged  benefit  of  the  sea  voyage.  From  Mar- 
seilles he  wrote  Mr.  Floge  a  most  cheerful  letter,  full  of  joy- 
ous anticipations  of  home  and  friends.  He  finished  it  on 
board,  and  sent  it  back  by  the  pilot,  closing  thus : 

Our  anchors  are  up.  My  traps  are  all  on  board.  I  am 
looking  out  of  the  window  at  the  motley  crowd  on  the 


66  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

quay.  God  speed  the  ship.  Daybreak  will  find  us  on  our 
way.  I  ought  to  have  written  you  a  different  sort  of  letter, 
for  this  may  be  the  last.  If  I  never  write  to  you  again, 
farewell.  Remember  me  most  kindly  to  our  friends,  and 
believe  me  to  the  last,  theirs  and  yours,  J.  P.  G. 

A  few  days  after,  a  sudden  squall  struck  the  vessel,  so  that 
she  careened  almost  on  her  beam  ends.  Feeling  the  lurch, 
Mr.  Greenleaf  sprang  from  his  seat  on  deck  and  grasped  a 
ring  of  the  mast.  The  wrench  as  the  vessel  righted  herself 
was  so  severe  as  to  cause  a  rupture  of  the  lung.  The  hem- 
orrhage could  not  be  assuaged,  and  he  died  in  a  few  hours, 
and  his  body  was  committed  to  the  sea. 

His  father  saw  that  the  vessel  had  been  spoken  and  went 
to  the  pier  to  meet  him.  "The  story  of  that  heart-breaking 
return,"  writes  the  Rev.  Dr.  Edward  P.  Terhune,  his 
brother-in-law,  "to  those  who  had  been  joyously  awaiting 
the  son  and  husband  and  brother,  is  one  of  the  saddest  recol- 
lections of  my  childhood." 

But  to  Mr.  Hoge  this  was  not  the  end  of  their  friendship ; 
it  only  made  it  a  more  sacred  thing.  Yet  he  did  not  cherish 
it  as  a  dead  relic  to  be  kept  in  a  casket.  It  was  a  living 
fountain,  flowing  fresh  and  clear  to  the  end,  sending  out 
streams  of  sentiment  and  sympathy,  associating  itself  with 
all  the  fuller  and  larger  experiences  of  his  growing  manhood 
and  age,  and  with  the  visions  and  hopes  of  the  infinite  future. 
One  instinctively  thinks  of  Tennyson's  friendship  for  Hal- 
lam,  but  there  was  one  feature  of  this  devotion  of  Mr.  Hoge 
for  his  friend  that  was,  if  possible,  more  beautiful :  the 
world  knew  nothing  of  it;  and  even  those  nearest  to  him 
never  suspected  that,  while  he  was  pursuing  his  earnest, 
throbbing,  intense  life,  in  the  active,  living  present,  this 
beautiful  love  of  his  youth  was  fresh  and  fragrant  and 
youthful  still.  To  Mr.  Greenleaf's  venerable  and  saintly 
father,  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Greenleaf,  of  Brooklyn,  he  gave 
the  reverence  and  affection  of  a  son.  He  always  spoke 
of  him  as  "the  good  old  shepherd."    To  the  young  widow  of 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry.  67 

his  friend,  a  daughter  of  noble  old  Judge  Terhune,  of  New 
Brunswick,  he  gave  the  love  of  a  brother,  and  for  forty-six 
years,  until  her  death  in  1889,  their  correspondence  flowed 
on — an  unfailing  tribute  to  a  common  devotion,  and  an  ever 
fresh  memorial  of  a  common  sorrow. 

Only  an  extract  here  and  there  through  the  long  years  of 
this  life-poem  can  be  given. 

Paris,  October  16,  1854. 
My  Dear  Sister  Mary  :  When  I  reached  this  brilliant 
city,  I  found  another  of  your  sweet  letters,  full  of  resigna- 
tion for  your  trials,  of  thankfulness  for  your  mercies,  and 
of  sympathy  for  my  joys  in  this  wonderfully  delightful 
journey.  That  was  a  charming  picture  you  drew  of  your 
chamber,  and  of  its  inmate,  during  Susan's  visit. 

I  was  turned  back  by  a  company  of  Austrian  soldiers, 
and  not  permitted  to  go  to  Florence,  because  I  had  been 
where  cholera  had  been.  But  I  did  not  lose  Genoa.  Why 
did  I  go  there?  For  one  reason  only,  to  see  the  Mediter- 
ranean !  I  saw  it  sweetly  sleeping  in  the  moonlight,  and 
the  next  day  flashing  its  waves  in  the  face  of  the  sun,  and 
while  on  its  banks  I  wrote  a  page  in  my  journal  which  I 
tear  out  and  enclose  for  you. 

\^Extract  from  his  Journal. '\ 
October  3c/.  I  am  on  the  top  of  the  tower  of  a  church 
on  the  highest  hill  in  Genoa.  Just  beneath  me  the  waves  of 
the  blue  Mediterranean  kiss  the  shore.  I  am  alone — as  I 
wish  to  be,  when  I  look  for  the  first  time  on  the  magnificent 
tomb  in  whose  coral  chamber  my  friend  sleeps.  Here  is 
the  sea  over  which  Roman  navies  sailed,  upon  which  Paul 
made  his  voyages,  whose  shores  Virgil  sung,  and  where 
my  noble  comrade  saw  the  last  of  earth  and  the  first  of 
heaven.  I  love  the  Mediterranean.  Dear  sister,  now  I 
think  of  you. 

Richmond,  Va.,  May  9,  1866. 

My  Dear  Sister:  A  letter  came  from  Bessie  to-day 
informing  me  how  much  earth  had  lost  of  its  attractiveness 
to  you,  and  how  much  heaven  had  gained  in  taking  to  itself 
so  much  purity,  goodness,  gentleness  and  truth,  that  was 
incarnate  in  the  dear  old  shepherd. 


68  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

But  for  my  lively  conception  of  your  desolate  feeling- 
in  having  your  sweetest  fountain  of  earthly  comfort  dried 
up,  I  could  only  drop  a  tear  of  gratitude  in  the  memory  of 
a  life  so  light  with  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and  now  so 
crowned  with  immortal  blessedness.  It  is  a  thing  to  give 
God  thanks  for,  that  such  a  man  was  born  and  lived  so 
long,  and  then  died,  leaving  a  memory  so  fragrant  with  all 
that  is  lovely  and  of  good  report. 

My  sister,  I  cannot  expect  you  to  feel  with  me  with  ref- 
erence to  such  events  in  times  like  these:  for  I  am  in  a 
horror  of  great  darkness  at  the  mystery  of  God's  provi- 
dence toward  our  dear  land,  and  I  count  none  happy  but 
the  blessed  dead  who  have  died  in  the  Lord. 

But  for  those  naturally  and  spiritually  dependent  on. 
me,  I  would  prefer  this  night  to  be  sleeping  beneath  the 
clods  of  the  valley,  or  with  Parsons  in  some  coral  chamber 
of  the  sea. 

Richmond,  Va.,  March  6,  1883. 

My  Dear  Sister  :  Was  there  ever  a  regard  more  tender 
and  unchanging  than  that  which  has  existed  between  us, 
need  I  say  how  many  years? 

It  has  been  a  source  of  unhappiness  to  me  that  when  I 
meet  the  friends  of  my  youth  they  often  seem  to  have  lost 
the  affection  they  once  expressed,  while  mine  has  been  un- 
diminished with  the  flight  of  years. 

I  never  get  over  anything.  My  old  loves  have  the  fresh 
morning  dew  upon  them  still ;  my  old  bereavements  yet 
wear  the  weeds  and  are  shaded  by  the  cypress.  I  live  over 
with  fond  delight  my  years  of  intimacy  with  J.  P.  G. ;  our 
days  of  sunshine  and  our  nights  still  brighter  and  more 
jubilant ;  I  never  see  the  ocean  that  my  tears  do  not  mingle 
with  its  salt,  sad  waves. 

It  was  good  and  kind  in  you  to  write  on  the  ever  remem- 
bered 22d  of  February,  Your  letter  came  while  I  was  ab- 
sent from  home.  .  .  .  And  so  I  was  prevented  from 
an  earlier  acknowledgment  of  your  most  welcome  letter. 
Its  clear  and  steady  chirography  assures  me  that,  with  all 
your  cares  and  anxieties,  you  are  stronger  in  health,  and  I 
did  not  need  any  assurance  that  you  were  unabated  in 
affection. 

Your  portraiture  of  your  father's  serene  and  beautiful 
old  age  was  worthy  both  of  him  and  of  your  own  loyal  and 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry.  69 

tender  devotion.  I  was  grieved  to  hear  of  Mrs.  Terhune's 
failing  health,  for  she  has  been  good  to  him,  to  you  and  to 
me,  and  what  more  could  I  ask? 

Richmond,  Va.,  February  27,  1885. 

My  Dear  Slster:  Since  your  letter,  so  full  of  sorrow, 
so  full  of  hope,  was  received,  I  have  been  reviewing  the 
history  of  our  more  than  friendship,  and  the  more  than 
fraternal  and  sisterly  aflfection  that  has  existed  between 
us,  without  a  ripple  of  doubt,  distrust  or  disagreement  to 
break  its  clear,  calm  surface  for  nearly  forty  years.  I 
say  more  than  friendship  and  more  than  fraternal  and 
sisterly  love,  because  I  believe  the  bonds  of  Christian 
affection  have  hallowed  and  made  immortal  all  the  ties  of 
mere  earthly  regard.  Was  there  ever  before  a  confidence 
50  untroubled  and  unruffled  as  ours,  on  which  no  passing 
cloud  ever  cast  a  momentary  shadow  ?  Is  not  our  love  one 
which  will  survive  the  stroke  of  death,  and  spring  up  and 
flourish  beautiful  and  immortal  in  the  paradise  of  God? 

I  have  also  been  reviewing  the  mystery  of  God's  dealings 
with  you  during  all  these  years.  Our  acquaintance  began 
in  the  inscrutable  bereavement  that  desolated  your  young 
life  and  robbed  me  of  half  of  my  heart,  and  since  that 
supreme  event,  how  full  of  vicissitudes  has  been  your  lot! 
As  you  were  not  permitted  to  live  for  one  to  whom  you 
gave  your  earthly  all,  it  has  since  been  your  mission  to 
minister  to  one  who  is  both  Father  and  Mother,  wise  and 
watchful  as  the  one,  tender  and  true  as  the  other.  You 
feel  that  "life  is  worth  living"  while  you  can  do  this,  and 
now  that  he  is  once  more  alone,  in  one  sense,  he  was  never 
less  alone,  not  only  because  he  has  a  noble  son  to  cherish 
him,  and  a  daughter  to  do  all  but  worship  him,  but  because 
he  has  a  Saviour  whose  love  and  tenderness  could  not  be 
fully  manifested  until  old  age  gave  him  the  opportunity  of 
demonstrating  the  strength  and  the  sweetness  of  all- 
sufficient  grace. 

Richmond,  Va.,  February  22,  1888. 

My  Dear  Sister:  Although  I  am  writing  this  letter 
Thursday  night,  it  is  really  the  22d  of  February,  as  it  is 
past  one  o'clock. 

Since  your  generous  and  most  welcome  letter  was 
received  I  have  been  in  no  mood  for  writing.     Day  after 


70  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

day  I  have  been  driven  by  my  work,  not  driving  it.  Ser- 
mons, lectures,  committee  meetings,  funeral  services,  visits 
to  the  sick  and  bereaved,  endless  arrivals  and  departures 
of  company  from  my  house,  have  taxed  my  time  to  the  ut- 
most, so  that  with  all  my  diligence  I  have  not  been  able  to 
keep  abreast  with  my  engagements,  but  have  drifted  con- 
stantly to  the  leeward.  I  once  told  you  of  my  fancy  for 
getting  a  good  place  and  time  in  which  to  read  my  letters, 
and  of  my  carrying  one  I  once  received  in  New  York,  and 
which  I  was  anxious  to  read,  for  hours  without  opening  it, 
until  at  last  I  found  the  right  spot  in  an  alcove  of  the 
Astor  Library,  and  there  broke  the  seal  and  luxuriated  in 
the  liberated  treasures  it  contained. 

So  I  have  waited  for  a  propitious  and  genial  hour  in 
which  to  write  to  you,  without  finding  it.  And  certainly  I 
have  not  found  it  now,  after  a  most  fatiguing  day  and 
company  at  my  house  to-night  until  twelve  o'clock. 

As  the  years  pass,  life  grows  more  crowded  with  ex- 
acting duties,  leaving  less  and  less  time  for  social  pleasures 
and  the  communings  which  the  heart  is  always  craving. 

Is  this  to  be  the  story  of  all  the  future?  In  all  proba- 
bility it  will,  and  the  hurry  and  the  worry  will  continue 
until  the  blessed  clime  is  reached  beyond  the  flight  of  time 
and  the  reign  of  death,  and  the  long  eternity  of  love  will 
begin. 

You  will  receive  this  before  the  22d  is  quite  ended,  and 
as  you  read  it  in  your  chamber  at  night  you  will  be  re- 
minded that  I  do  not  forget  you,  or  the  anniversary  days 
(how  numerous  they  are  becoming),  when  memory  gives 
a  resurrection  to  all  the  past,  and  when  the  scenes  and  the 
friends  of  the  days  when  we  lived  in  the  affections  are  all 
.  revived  and  clothed  in  the  beauty  which  never  fades. 

Prince  Edward,  Charlotte,  London,  Brooklyn,  Mar- 
seilles, the  Mediterranean,  Heaven:  What  reminiscences,, 
what  joys,  what  griefs,  what  hopes  these  names  inspire ! 

When  you  come  to  see  me  some  time  this  spring,  we 
will  talk  over  these  things.  Or  should  anything  prevent 
that,  there  is  a  summer  coming  when  the  skies  will  be  blue 
and  the  days  long,  when  I  will  find  you  and  tell  you  how 
dear  you  ever  will  be  to 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

Moses  D.  Hoge. 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry.  71 

But  Mr.  Hoge's  friendship  for  Mr.  Greenleaf  was  not  the 
only  attachment  of  his  student  days.  There  was  another  tie 
formed  which,  if  less  unusual,  was  closer  and  tenderer,  and 
like  the  other  endured  to  the  end.  Three  or  four  miles  from 
Hampden-Sidney  was  the  old  homestead  of  "Poplar  Hill," 
formerly  the  home  of  Francis  Watkins,  but  then  of  James  D. 
Wood,  who  had  married  his  daughter  Frances.  In  this 
family  that  fine  type  of  English  blood  represented  in  the 
Watkins,  Venable  and  Morton  families  was  mingled  with  a 
Hueruenot  strain.  Their  French  ancestress,  Susanne  Rochet, 
had,  when  a  little  girl,  been  "exported"  from  Sedan  to 
Amsterdam  in  a  hogshead,  during  the  persecution  that 
followed  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes;  her  sis- 
ters, already  in  Amsterdam,  having  written  for  their  "little 
nightcap"  ^  to  be  sent  to  them.  In  time  she  married  Abra- 
ham Micheaux,  another  Huguenot  emigre,  and  came  to 
Virginia. 

In  the  family  at  Poplar  Hill,  where  Mr.  Hoge  was  a  fre- 
quent and  welcome  visitor,  were  several  young  ladies,  but  it 
was  the  namesake  of  the  "little  nightcap"  who  won  his  heart. 
Between  a  young  lady  of  such  serious  ancestry  and  a  dig- 
nified college  tutor  and  theologian  it  might  be  expected  that 
courtship  would  be  conducted  on  thoroughly  correct  and 
conventional  lines.  But  young  love  needs  its  spice  of 
mystery  and  adventure,  and  long  afterwards  in  a  letter 
to  Mrs.  Greenleaf  from  Hampden-Sidney  this  secret  comes 
out: 

The  old  college  church  has  been  pulled  down  for  the 
purpose  of  erecting  a  new  and  larger  one  on  the  same 
spot.  Part  of  the  old  wall  was  standing  the  other  day, 
and  gave  me  a  fit  of  throat  stricture  as  I  remembered  the 
spiritual  and  other  love  passages  I  had  known  in  that 
church,  and  how  often  I  had  climbed  through  a  window  in 
that  fragment  of  wall,  night  after  night,  to  get  letters  and 
notes  from  Susan  and  Betty  [the  sister  and  confidante]  con- 

*  Such  enigmatical  expressions  being  necessary  to  avert  suspicion. 


72  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

cealed  cunningly  under  the  pew  in  which  they  sat.     But 
what  of  all  that? 

'  Only  a  woman's  hair.' 

Do  you  remember  Thackeray's  comment  on  that  record 
of  Swift? 

When  the  time  had  come  for  their  love  to  leave  its  under- 
ground channel  and  come  out  into  the  light  of  day,  Mr. 
Hoge  took  occasion  to  ride  home  one  afternoon  with  Mr. 
Wood  for  the  purpose  of  asking  his  consent  to  their  engage- 
ment. Mr.  Wood  talked  as  they  rode  of  crops  and  weather 
and  the  affairs  of  Church  and  State.  Mr.  Hoge  listened  with 
growing  impatience  until  they  reached  the  gate,  when  he 
drew  rein  and  said :  "Mr.  Wood,  I  came  with  you  this  after- 
noon for  the  express  purpose  of  speaking  to  you  on  one 
subject,  and  you  have  not  given  me  a  single  moment  to  say 
to  you  what  I  came  to  say.  I  want  to  ask  your  consent 
to  my  engagement  to  your  daughter  Susan."  At  this 
abrupt  disclosure  Mr.  Wood  expressed  the  greatest  sur- 
prise; said  he  never  had  thought  his  visits  were  other 
than  those  of  friendship  to  the  family;  and  readily  gave 
his  consent.  There  were  others  in  the  family  who  had  had 
other  thoughts. 

Thus  happily  engaged  to  one  who  filled  his  heart,  and  who 
was  so  richly  to  supplement  as  well  as  bless  his  life,  Mr. 
Hoge  must  have  looked  forward  the  more  eagerly  to  his 
approaching  licensure  and  settlement  in  the  ministry. 

The  church  that  first  sought  his  services  was  one  to  which 
he  had  occasionally  ministered  during  his  theological  course, 
the  Lacy-Hoge  church,  in  Mecklenburg  county,  named  for 
his  two  grandfathers.  The  correspondence  is  interesting; 
indeed  pathetic.  They  argue  their  case  with  such  zeal,  argu- 
ing, as  it  seems  now,  against  fate.  They  tell  him  that  in  a 
city  like  Richmond,  holding  a  subordinate  place  to  a  man  of 
Dr.  Plumer's  eminence,  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to 
take  the  position  to  which  his  gifts  entitled  him,  or  "by  any 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry.  73 

■sort  of  zeal  and  self-devotion  to  acquire  that  distinction  for 
usefulness  to  which  every  minister  ought  to  aspire."  But  in 
the  end  they  pray  that  God  may  guide  him  "so  that  himself 
and  all  interested  in  his  future  labors  may  be  blessed  and  his 
glory  advanced.''    And  God  guided  him. 

At  the  same  time  his  services  were  sought  in  quite  a 
different  direction.  Through  the  medium  of  the  Rev. 
John  Leyburn,  then  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  he  was  invited  to 
the  Second  Church  of  Mobile,  Ala.  He  was  rather  disposed 
to  this  Southern  field  because  of  the  fear  he  then  entertained 
of  some  hereditary  pulmonary  weakness. 

But  at  this  time  Dr.  Plunier  was  planning  a  forward 
movement  in  Richmond.  His  own  church  was  far  down 
town,  and  the  old  church  founded  by  Parson  Buchanan  had 
gone  with  the  New  School  Assembly  in  the  great  schism. 
Thus  the  rapidly  growing  western  section  of  the  city  was 
left  without  a  Presbyterian  church  of  the  Old  School.  Dr. 
Plumer  desired  to  plant  a  mission  chapel  higher  up  town, 
and  to  man  it  with  one  capable  of  drawing  and  holding  the 
class  of  people  that  were  moving  in  that  direction.  His  pen- 
etrating eye  saw  in  Moses  Hoge  the  man  for  the  place  and 
the  time.  The  story  was  told  by  Dr.  Hoge  on  his  fiftieth 
.anniversary : 

It  was  a  singular  providence  that  brought  me  to  this 
city.  As  I  drew  near  to  the  end  of  my  course  in  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  a  little  country  church  in  Mecklenburg 
county  signified  its  wish  to  engage  me  as  its  pastor  as  soon 
as  I  obtained  my  license.  Its  attention  was  called  to  me, 
no  doubt,  chiefly  because  it  bore  the  name  of  both  of  my 
grandfathers ;  it  was  called  the  Lacy-Hoge  Church. 
About  that  time,  however,  the  venerable  Dr.  Plumer,  then 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  city,  made 
a  visit  to  Prince  Edward,  and  told  me  I  would  probably  be 
invited  to  this  city  to  become  his  assistant.  I  assured  him 
of  my  preference  for  a  small  country  charge,  at  least  until 
I  gained  some  experience  and  had  composed  some  ser- 
mons.   The  Doctor  requested  a  meeting  of  the  Faculty  of 


74  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  Theological  Seminary,  explained  his  wishes  to  them, 
and  sent  for  me.  They  united  in  advising  me  to  go  to 
Richmond  in  case  I  received  an  invitation.  There  was 
another  small  church  in  another  county  to  which  I  had 
been  recommended,  but  all  prospect  of  my  settlement  there 
was  blighted  by  an  influential  elder,  who  frankly  told  the 
people  that  he  did  not  think  me  qualified  for  the  position. 
Thus  in  two  instances  my  desire  to  become  a  country  pastor 
was  disappointed.^ 

Mr.  Hoge  was  licensed  as  a  probationer  for  the  gospel 
ministry  by  West  Hanover  Presbytery  in  Lynchburg,  Octo- 
ber 6,  1843,  i^  t^^^  same  church  in  which  his  father  had  been 
licensed  before  him,  under  the  circumstances  already  de- 
scribed.^ "Thus  three  generations  of  the  same  family  were 
connected  by  this  strange  sequence  of  services  in  the  same 
church."  ^ 

On  his  return  from  Lynchburg  he  stopped  over  night  at  a 
place  where  a  protracted  meeting  was  in  progress  in  a  Bap- 
tist church.  He  was  invited  to  preach  and  did  so,  and  that 
sermon  was  the  means  of  awakening  several  souls.  About 
the  same  time  Judge  Farrar  heard  him  at  Prides  Church  in 
Amelia,  and  thus  describes  the  occasion : 

The  church  was  nothing  more  than  a  barn,  without 
ceiling  or  plastering.  I  recall  this  incident:  My  father, 
with  others,  went  up  to  the  church  to  arrange  it  for  the 
Sunday  service.  There  were  some  timber  sleepers  that  lay 
right  over  the  pulpit.  Dol  Motley,  a  college  mate  of  Dr. 
Hoge,  was  present,  and  he  said,  "Look  here,  if  Hoge  gets 
on  one  of  his  big  flights  he  will  knock  that  sleeper  through 
the  top  of  the  house."  The  timber  was  cut  out.  On  Sun- 
day a  great  crowd  assembled  to  hear  the  young  preacher. 
He  announced  his  text  distinctly  and  with  perfect  com- 
posure, "And  as  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance, 
and  judgment  to  come,  Felix  trembled  and  answered,  go 
thy  way  for  this  time ;   when  I  have  a  convenient  season  I 

'  Memorial  Address,  Appendix,  p.  473.  ^  Page  15, 

^  Memorial  Address,  Appendix,  p.  473, 


Preparation  for  the  Ministry,  75 

will  call  for  thee."  In  a  moment  every  eye  was  fixed, 
deathlike  silence  spread  over  the  waiting  congregation,  the 
country  folks  gazed  on  him  with  absolute  amazement,  he 
rose  higher  and  higher  with  his  theme,  swaying  his  hearers 
at  will. 

Old  Dr.  Southall,  a  man  distinguished  for  his  literary 
attainments,  said  it  was  the  finest  specimen  of  pulpit  ora- 
tory he  had  ever  heard.  Even  in  that  first  sermon  that  I 
heard,  Dr.  Hoge  exhibited  that  matchless  power  of  elo- 
quence which  has  made  him  famous.  He  caught  the 
keynote : 

"  Power  above  powers,  oh !  heavenly  eloquence ; 
That  with  strong  run  of  commanding  words 
Dost  manage,  guide,  and  master  the  high  eminence  of  men's. 
affections." 

From  several  sources  comes  evidence  that  in  these  first 
sermons  there  was  not  only  the  eloquence  of  intellect,  but  the 
eloquence  that  reached  the  heart.  What  heart  has  not  been 
touched  by  that  exquisite  sketch,  "His  Mother's  Sermon"  ? 
May  there  not  have  been  the  same  influence  here?  On  the 
death  of  his  mother,  his  mother's  cousin  and  his  venerable 
friend,  the  widow  of  Dr.  Rice,  wrote  him : 

This  tenderest  tie  has  been  broken  just  as  you  are  com- 
mencing a  preparation  for  the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  It 
may  be  to  make  you  a  more  holy,  devout  and  heavenly 
preacher.  Your  beloved  mother,  you  say,  had  an  influence 
or  connection  with  almost  ever}^hing  you  did.  May  she 
not  still  have,  in  your  course  for  a  better  world  ?  You  may 
at  last,  with  inconceivable  joy,  recount  to  her  your  labors 
here,  and  all  your  difficulties  overcome  by  Him  who  has 
promised  strength  sufficient  for  our  day. 


CHAPTER  V. 
Early  Ministry. 

"Build  it  well  whate'er  you  do, 
Build  it  straight  and  strong  and  true, 
Build  it  high  and  clear  and  broad. 
Build  it  for  the  eye  of  God." 

AFTER  a  visit  to  Richmond  in  the  fall  of  1843,  Mr.  Hoge 
began  his  labors  there,  on  the  invitation  of  the  session 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  in  the  early  part  of 
1844,  as  assistant  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  S.  Plumer. 
It  w^as  an  inspiring  relation.  Dr.  Plumer  was  a  man 
marked  before  the  whole  country.  In  the  Assembly  of  1837 
he  was  one  of  that  brilliant  band  of  leaders  who  held  the 
Assembly  true  to  Calvinism  in  doctrine  and  Presbyterianism 
in  government.  He  brought  in  the  final  report  that  cited  the 
semi-congregational  synods  before  the  bar  of  the  Assembly, 
an  act  whose  immediate  result  was  the  New  School  schism, 
but  whose  final  outcome  was  the  perpetuation  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  America  as  Presbyterian.  In  the  mem- 
orable Assembly  of  1838,  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  New 
School  members,  he  was  elected  Moderator.  Mr.  Hoge, 
while  teaching  in  North  Carolina,  reading  the  reports  of 
that  Assembly,  wrote  his  mother :  "Mr.  Plumer  is  the  very 
man  for  Moderator.  His  manner  of  conducting  the  Watch- 
man proves  that  he  has  watched  and  governed  his  temper, 
and  no  one  doubts  his  abilities  or  knowledge  of  church  dis- 
cipline." 

Forty-two  years  afterwards,  at  his  funeral  in  the  First 
Church,  Richmond,  Dr.  Hoge  said : 

I  have  witnessed  many  affecting  scenes  in  this  church, 
but  none  combining  so  many  elements  of  solemn  and  tender 
impressiveness    as    this.      The    memories    of    years    long 


Early  Ministry.  77 

gone  by  come  freshly  back  and  fill  this  place.  The  name 
that  has  been  on  so  many  lips  to-day,  in  connection  with  this 
funeral  service,  is  linked  with  the  associations  and  the 
recollections  of  the  whole  lives  of  many  here  present.  To 
a  large  number  of  this  congregation  that  name  has  been  a 
household  word,  and  the  form  of  the  man  of  God  who  bore 
it  familiar  to  them  from  early  childhood.  The  look  he 
wore,  the  tones  of  his  voice,  his  slow  and  measured  step, 
the  strange  power  of  his  presence  to  arrest  attention  and 
to  awaken  interest — these  can  never  be  forgotten. 

And  there  are  others  who  remember  him  with  a  still 
more  sacred  regard,  because  bound  to  him  by  the  tie  which 
connects  the  saved  soul  with  the  instrument  of  its  salvation 
— the  Christian  child  with  the  spiritual  father — for  there 
are  those  among  the  older  members  of  this  church  who 
will  ever  bless  God  for  the  awakening  sermon  and  the 
pastoral  counsel  by  which  they  were  led  to  receive  the  con- 
secrated emblems  of  their  first  communion  at  his  hands. 
Here,  also,  are  those  who,  in  the  bereavements  and  various 
forms  of  trial  through  which  they  have  passed,  long  since 
his  connection  with  this  church  terminated,  have  been  com- 
forted by  the  assurance  of  his  sympathy  and  love  by  the 
letters  which  it  was  the  custom  of  his  whole  life  to  write  to 
those  who  were  in  any  trouble,  that  he  might  "comfort 
them  with  the  comfort  wherewith  he  himself  was  com- 
forted of  God." 

Moreover,  there  are  few  of  those  here  present  to-day 
who  have  not  seen  and  heard  him  in  the  pulpit.  That  was 
his  throne.  There  he  proved  himself  the  master  of  assem- 
blies ;  and  whenever  it  was  known  that  he  would  officiate 
in  any  church  in  this  city,  that  was  the  signal  and  the  assur- 
ance of  an  overflowing  audience.  Those  who  did  not  care 
for  the  ordinances  of  God's  house,  and  rarely  attended  any 
church,  came  when  it  was  known  that  he  would  be  the 
preacher ;  while  those  who  loved  the  sanctuary  and  proved 
their  devotion  by  their  regular  attendance,  and  who  had 
heard  him  oftenest,  were  among  the  most  anxious  to  hear 
him  again,  whenever  the  opportunity  was  afforded  them. 

Thus  when  we  remember  how  he  was  linked  to  this 
community  in  the  many  ways  by  which  he  indelibly  im- 
pressed himself  upon  our  people,  we  cannot  wonder  at  the 
affecting  demonstrations  of  this  hour,  now  that  all  who 


78  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

can,  have  crowded  within  these  walls  to  pay  the  last  sad 
tribute  of  respect  and  affection  to  the  man  and  the  minister, 
the  friend  and  the  father,  whose  hand  we  shall  not  clasp 
again  until  "this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality," 
and  whose  voice  we  shall  not  hear  again  until  it  mingles 
in  the  anthem  which  the  choristers  of  heaven  sing  to  the 
glory  of  the  King  of  kings. 

It  is  not  true  that  out  of  the  fulness  of  the  heart  a  ready 
utterance  always  comes.  There  are  times  when  the  fulness 
of  emotion  makes  silence  more  natural  than  speech ;  and 
to-day  I  feel  that  my  more  appropriate  place  would  be 
among  those  who  weep  beneath  this  pulpit  than  among 
those  who  speak  from  it,  for  when  I  look  upon  this  be- 
reaved family,  upon  this  vast  mourning  assembly,  and 
remember  whose  dust  it  is  which  this  coffin  encloses,  I  feel 
how  incompetent  I  am  for  the  duty  assigned  me — a  duty 
assigned  to  me  only  because  of  the  peculiar  relations  I  so 
long  sustained  to  him. 

But  for  Dr.  Plumer,  I  would  not  have  made  my  home 
in  this  city.  While  yet  a  student  in  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary, he  paid  me  a  visit  and  invited  and  advised  me  to 
■come  to  Richmond  on  the  completion  of  my  studies  there. 

The  only  church  of  which  I  have  ever  been  the  pastor 
was  projected  and  fostered  by  him.  He  preached  the 
■dedication  sermon  of  our  house  of  worship,  and  during  all 
the  years  since  our  acquaintance  commenced  there  was 
never  a  ripple  on  the  smooth  current  of  our  intercourse — 
an  intercourse  characterized  by  kindness,  consideration, 
and  encouragement  on  his  part;  by  reverence,  devotion, 
and  affection  on  mine. 

Such  was  the  affection  Dr.  Plumer  inspired  in  his  young 
assistant;  the  regard  he  felt  for  Mr.  Hoge  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  he  preserved,  labelled  and  filed  away  every  scrap 
of  writing  he  ever  received  from  him. 

The  First  Presbyterian  Church,  in  which  Mr.  Hoge  first 
ministered,  was  on  Franklin  street,  a  short  distance  above 
the  Exchange  Hotel  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street. 
It  v^^as  a  plain,  but  dignified  building  of  red  brick,  the  main 
auditorium  being  over  a  high  basement.    When  the  church 


Early  Ministry.  79 

moved  to  its  new  edifice  on  Capitol  street — on  the  present 
site  of  the  City  Hall — the  old  building  was  sold  and  became 
known  as  the  Metropolitan  Hall.  Its  convenience  to  the  Ex- 
change Hotel  made  it  a  favorite  place  for  political  conven- 
tions. Afterwards,  as  the  character  of  the  surroundings 
changed,  it  became  a  low  theatre,  and  those  who  had  sacred 
associations  with  it  rejoiced  when  it  was  at  last  torn  down  to 
give  place  to  a  factory. 

The  Richmond  of  1844  was,  of  course,  not  the  Richmond 
of  to-day.  The  aristocratic  and  wealthy  section  of  the  city 
lay  to  the  north  and  east  of  the  Capitol  Square.  The  hand- 
some houses  that  faced  the  Square  have  given  place  to  hotels 
and  public  buildings ;  but  the  stranger  is  still  impressed  with 
the  elegant  and  commodious  residences  on  lower  Broad 
street,  the  corresponding  portions  of  Clay  and  Marshall  and 
the  intersecting  streets,  while  others  still  rear  their  stately 
fronts  behind  the  Governor's  Mansion,  on  the  hill  running 
down  to  the  Exchange  Hotel — once  the  centre  of  all  fash- 
ionable and  political  gatherings  in  the  Commonwealth.  In 
this  region  was  the  home  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and  as 
late  as  the  time  of  the  war  between  the  States  one  of  its  most 
spacious  mansions  became  the  "White  House  of  the  Con- 
federacy." ^ 

The  city,  however,  had  begun  to  grow  westward.  On 
Main  and  Franklin  and  Grace  streets  elegant  residences  had 
begun  to  appear  some  time  before,  and  had  even  overflowed 
into  the  "Rutherfoord  Extension"  beyond  First  street.  But 
these  houses  generally  stood  far  apart  in  large  gardens,  and 
a  visitor  to  the  city,  looking  out  of  his  window  on  an  early 
spring  morning,  was  more  impressed  with  the  snowy  drifts 
of  apple  and  cherry  blossoms,  and  the  pink  flush  of  the  peach 
orchards,  than  with  the  architectural  beauty  and  material 
;gTowth  of  the  city. 

When  it  was  decided  to  plant  a  colony  of  the  First  Church, 

*  Now  the  Confederate  Museum. 


8o  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  site  selected  was  a  lot  on  Fifth  street,  near  Main.  Next 
door  was  the  house  built  by  Major  Gibbon,  an  officer  of  the 
Revolutionary  war,  which  afterwards  became  Dr.  Hoge's 
residence  for  the  last  thirty-eight  years  of  his  life.  Across 
Main  street  was  the  Allen  residence,  for  a  time  the  home  of 
Edgar  A.  Poe,  while  opposite  was  the  house  in  which  Wil- 
liam Wirt  wrote  his  Life  of  Henry.  But  in  spite  of  the 
evident  tendency  and  promise  of  this  part  of  the  city,  there 
were  those  who  gravely  doubted  the  wisdom  of  building 
"so  far  west." 

However,  the  progressive  spirit  prevailed,  and  a  wooden 
chapel  was  erected  on  this  lot,  until  it  could  be  seen  whether 
a  permanent  congregation  could  be  gathered  here. 

Of  the  religious  condition  of  Richmond  and  Virginia 
Bishop  Wilmer,  of  Alabama,  gives  the  following  picture  at 
the  time  he  was  ordained  deacon — five  years  before  Mr. 
Hoge  came  to  Richmond : 

More  than  half  a  century  ago,  I  was  made  deacon  by 
Bishop  Moore  at  the  "Monumental"  Church  in  Richmond. 
The  day  was  bright  and  beautiful,  a  very  typical  Easter 
Day.  Few  came  up  to  partake  of  the  sacred  feast — a  few 
old  people,  the  young  conspicuously  absent.  Indeed,  it 
was  rare  to  find  a  communicant  among  the  educated  men 
of  that  day.  The  wave  of  French  infidelity  had  swept 
away  nearly  every  vestige  of  faith  from  the  minds  of  our 
men.  One  of  the  very  few  who  had  survived  the  general 
wreck  told  me  that,  when  a  student  at  William  and  Mary, 
he  was  a  guest  at  a  dinner  party  given  to  a  number  of  the 
distinguished  men  of  the  day.  The  guests  made  them- 
selves merry  with  profane  anecdotes  and  jests.  He  said 
that  he  fell  into  the  current  of  talk,  and  that  the  most 
distinguished  man  of  the  group  reached  round  a  guest 
sitting  between  them,  and  patted  him  on  the  head,  con- 
gratulating him  upon  his  "  Emancipation."  Said  my 
friend,  "It  took  me  twenty  years  to  get  over  that  pat  on 
my  head." 

But  a  year  or  two  later,  he  goes  on,  there  had  come  a 
period  of  pentecostal   revival   in  which  he  and   the   Rev. 


Early  Ministry.  8i 

Mr.  Johns — afterwards  Bishop  Johns — assisted  Dr.  Nor- 
wood in  double-daily  services  at  the  Monumental  Church. 
This  revival  was  part  of  a  widespread  religious  movement 
that  pervaded  the  whole  community  and  all  churches.  The 
precise  relations  of  this  revival  to  the  forward  movement 
planned  by  Dr.  Plumer  we  do  not  know.  Doubtless  the 
growth  consequent  upon  it  made  the  movement  possible. 
Mr.  Hoge  did  not  begin  his  work  upon  the  crest  of  the  wave, 
but  the  broadened  and  deepened  religious  life  of  the  city 
presented  him  with  a  more  open  door,  and  furnished  him 
a  more  cordial  cooperation. 

Before  the  chapel  was  built,  he  divided  the  services  at  the 
First  Church  with  Dr.  Plumer.  Afterwards  he  preached 
altogether  at  the  Chapel ;  but  it  was  arranged  that  his  second 
service  should  be  in  the  afternoon — instead  of  the  evening, 
as  at  the  First  Church — so  that  each  could  attend  the  second 
service  of  the  other,  and  that  they  could  more  easily  assist 
each  other  as  occasion  required.  Thus  began  those  after- 
noon services  that  for  fifty-five  years  have  been  one  of  the 
most  prominent  features  in  the  religious  life  of  Richmond. 
Of  these  services  Bishop  Randolph  once  said :  ^  "  You  see 
around  you  Methodists  and  Presbyterians,  Episcopalians 
and  Baptists,  all  singing  the  hymns  and  joining  in  the  wor- 
ship and  listening  with  rapt  attention  to  the  words  of  the 
preacher.  It  has  been  said  that  there  is  less  of  denomina- 
tional jealousy,  and  more  of  the  broad,  sweet  spirit  of  Chris- 
tian unity  among  the  churches  in  the  city  of  Richmond  than 
in  the  majority  of  communities  in  our  land.  .  .  .  Perhaps 
these  afternoon  services  have  helped  to  educate  our  people 
into  the  great  principles  of  practical  Christian  unity." 

Mr.  Hoge's  success  in  Richmond  was  immediate  and  as- 
sured. The  little  chapel  was  crowded  from  Sunday  to  Sun- 
day. Names  were  handed  in  for  membership ;  some  from 
the  First  Church,   Dr.    Plumer  encouraging;    some   from 

*  Address  on  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Hoge's  forty-fifth  anniversary. 


82  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

outside — sixty-three  in  all.  They  were  duly  organized  into 
a  church,  and  their  first  act  as  an  organized  congregation 
was  to  call  him  as  their  pastor.  The  call  was  accepted,  and 
on  the  evening  of  February  27,  1845,  he  was  solemnly 
ordained  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery, 
and  installed  the  pastor  of  what  was  now  called  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church.  The  ordination  sermon  was  preached 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Leyburn,  the  charge  to  the  pastor  deliv- 
ered by  Dr.  Plumer,  and  the  charge  to  the  people  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Lyon. 

When  he  returned  that  evening  to  his  rooms  at  the  Ex- 
change Hotel  an  unusual  welcome  awaited  him.  Shortly 
after  his  settlement  in  Richmond,  on  March  20,  1844,  his 
engagement  to  Miss  Wood  was  consummated  by  a  quiet 
wedding  at  Poplar  Hill.  The  ceremony  was  unpleasantly 
remembered  for  the  "gratuitous  twenty-minute  sermon"  of 
the  officiating  minister;  but  all  else  was  joy.  To  a  dear 
friend  he  once  wrote : 

Twenty-five  years  ago  this  moment,  I  was  riding  down 
with  McClellan  in  the  carriage  from  Mr.  Henry  E.  Wat- 
kins',  where  I  had  spent  the  day,  to  Mr.  Wood's.  The 
hope,  and  joy,  and  dear  expectation  of  that  particular  time 
comes  freshly  back  to  my  memory  now.  I  can  feel  at  this 
instant  the  kiss  that  Susan  gave  me  when  I  met  her  for 
a  second  in  the  passage  before  the  wedding  ceremony  com- 
menced, and  all  the  events  of  the  evening — many  of  which, 
I  thought,  had  faded  out  of  mind — return  and  come  out 
distinctly,  as  lines  traced  in  sympathetic  ink  when  brought 
to  the  presence  of  heat.  The  day  after  our  marriage  I 
went  to  College  Hill,  and  in  the  evening  to  a  party  Mr. 
Ewell  gave  us.  But  the  ride  to  Richmond,  or  rather  to 
Montrose,  where  we  spent  two  or  three  days,  was  unspeak- 
ably delightful.  The  carriage  was  new,  the  roads  were 
good,  the  weather  was  bright,  and  heaven  was  in  our 
hearts. 

They  made  their  home  very  happily  at  the  Exchange 
Hotel,  and  on  his  ordination  night,  when  he  returned,  he 


Early  Ministry.  83 

found  a  tiny  stranger,  "made  in  his  image,  after  his  Hke- 
ness,"  to  fill  up  the  measure  of  his  joys.  The  solemn  and 
joyful  experiences  of  that  day  were  consecrated  to  the  mem- 
ory of  his  mother,  and  the  child  was  named  Elizabeth  Lacy. 
It  is  difficult  for  us  who  knew  him  in  later  years  to  keep  in 
mind  that,  in  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  pastorate,  he 
had,  in  addition  to  all  the  arduous  labors  in  which  he  en- 
gaged, to  struggle  with  the  burden  of  ill-health.  The  follow- 
ing letter  to  his  sister  Elizabeth  shows  that  he  was  not  yet 
free  from  the  anxieties  of  his  college  days.  But  beneath 
what  appears  on  the  face  of  the  letter  there  was  a  deeper 
significance.  What  with  him  was  only  a  fear  was  with  his 
sister  a  fact.  The  insidious  seeds  of  consumption  had  evi- 
dently appeared,  and  her  young  life,  so  full  of  gentleness  and 
love,  of  brightness  and  aspiration,  was  marked  for  an  early 
€nd.  This  letter,  expressing  his  own  thoughts  and  feelings, 
was  his  delicate  and  tactful  way  of  directing  her  thoughts 
and  feelings  into  the  same  channel,  and  of  preparing  her 
mind  as  gently  as  possible  for  the  recognition  of  her  condi- 
tion : 

September  2,  1845. 
Thanks  to  the  liberality  of  my  congregation,  I  was 
enabled  to  make  a  long  and  pleasant  trip  to  the  North.  I 
spent  a  week  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  then  went  to 
West  Point,  and  so  on  up  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Champlain 
to  Canada.  ...  I  feel  much  better  since  I  returned,  but 
am  not  as  strong  as  when  I  came  to  Richmond.  I  have 
some  reason  to  apprehend  some  trouble  from  my  lungs, 
though  nothing  very  decided  has  manifested  itself  yet.  We 
should  not  forget  that  we  are  of  a  short-lived  race,  and 
cannot  expect  to  see  many  days  upon  earth.  I  do  not  an- 
ticipate old  age,  and  it  fills  me  with  no  sorrow  that  I  cannot 
look  forward  to  such  a  period.  When  the  bodily  powers 
begin  to  decay  and  the  mind  to  decay  also;  when  the  in- 
firmities of  years  come  and  one  loses  relish  for  the  enjoy- 
ments of  life  and  hangs  as  a  burden  upon  friends — then,  if 
prepared  for  the  change,  he  should  welcome  the  grave  as  a 
peaceful  and  sacred  asylum,  and  be  like  the  wearied  trav- 


84  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

eller,  who,  when  the  shades  of  night  come,  calmly  folds 
his  mantle  around  him  and  lies  down  to  his  repose.  And 
yet,  should  my  health  and  strength  of  body  and  mind  con- 
tinue, it  seems  to  me  I  have  as  much  to  live  for  as  anybody 
else.  I  have  so  many  ties  to  bind  me  to  life — many  to  love, 
many  who  love  me  in  return,  many  comforts  for  the  present 
and  good  prospects  of  happiness  and  usefulness  for  the 
future.  And  even  should  I  become  permanently  diseased — 
an  invalid  for  years — if  I  only  had  such  a  spirit  of 
heavenly-mindedness  as  some  have  been  blessed  with, 
what  right  would  I  have  to  complain?  It  was  in  a  sick 
chamber,  where  he  languished  for  many  long  years,  that 
the  author  of  The  Saint's  Everlasting  Rest  enjoyed  those 
anticipations  of  heaven  which  he  has  recorded  for  our 
encouragement,  and  whose  reality  he  no  doubt  finds  to  be 
all  the  sweeter  now,  in  contrasting  his  present  rest  with 
the  disquietude  he  was  subject  to  before  his  mortal  put  on 
immortality.  Whether  our  stay  on  earth  be  long  or  brief, 
that  which  we  should  strive  for  is  so  to  live  that  whether 
present  or  absent,  living  or  dying,  we  may  be  the  Lord's. 
I  have  every  reason  to  be  thankful  that  my  lot  has  been 
cast  here.  I  have  a  small,  but  growing  church,  and  when  I 
returned  home  the  other  day,  the  affectionate  greetings  of 
my  people  and  the  warm  grasp  of  their  hands  encouraged 
my  heart  and  strengthened  my  belief  that  I  had  a  firm 
place  in  their  regard.  Next  Monday  week  I  shall  set  off 
for  Prince  Edward  to  see  Susan  and  to  attend  the  com- 
mencement in  the  college.  I  there  expect  to  meet  with 
many  old  friends  and  acquaintances,  and  to  enjoy  a  few 
days'  more  rest  amidst  the  quiet  shades  of  my  venerable 
alma  mater.  You  cannot  imagine  how  much  more  I  feel 
interested  in  Sister  Anne  Lacy's  children  since  little  Bess 
was  born.  I  never  loved  children  before ;  now  I  notice  all, 
and  would  be  glad  to  have  a  romp  with  hers  especially. 

In  nineteen  months  from  the  date  of  this  letter,  her  brief 
course  was  finished  in  faith  and  hope,  while  for  him  more 
than  half  a  century  of  abounding  work  was  in  store.  She 
died  in  Clarksville,  Tenn.,  April  3,  1847,  ^^^'^^  was  borne  to 
Gallatin,  Tenn.,  and  laid  beside  her  mother.  Later  both  were 
laid  by  the  husband  and  father  in  Athens,  Ohio. 


Early  Ministry,  85 

From  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  Mr.  Hoge  was  fortu- 
nate in  the  elders  that  were  associated  with  him  in  the 
counsels  of  the  church.  Of  his  first  session  he  considered 
Mr.  John  B.  Martin  one  of  the  most  thorough  Bible  scholars 
he  had  ever  met,  outside  of  those  trained  in  theological 
schools.  It  was  his  custom  while  working  at  his  art — he  was 
a  portrait-painter  and  wood-engraver — to  keep  a  Bible  open 
beside  him,  and  to  take  up  a  verse  at  a  time  for  meditation, 
turning  it  over  in  his  mind,  looking  at  what  came  before  and 
after,  assimilating  it  to  his  previous  knowledge,  and  never 
leaving  it  until  he  had  arrived  at  some  interpretation  that 
satisfied  him.  His  four  sons  all  became  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  Mr.  Michael  Gretter,  a  brother  of  Dr.  Gretter, 
long  the  honored  pastor  of  the  church  in  Greensboro,  N.  C., 
was  a  wise  and  godly  counsellor;  his  life,  Dr.  Hoge  once 
said,  "a  living  hymn  of  praise  to  God;"  Mr.  Guernsey  A. 
Denison  soon  left  Richmond,  and  years  after  took  part — as 
clerk  of  the  session — in  Dr.  Hoge's  call  to  Memphis.  Mr. 
Richard  Sterling  was  teacher  of  a  boys'  classical  school, 
and  to  his  subsequent  departure  from  the  city  Mr.  Hoge 
refers  with  great  regret. 

It  soon  became  apparent  that  the  chapel  in  which  the 
church  began  its  life  was  hopelessly  and  ridiculously  inad- 
equate; and  with  Mr.  Hawes,  then  one  of  his  deacons,  he 
went  North  to  secure  plans  for  a  church.  Meanwhile  the  con- 
gregation filled  seats,  aisles  and  windows.  The  preaching  of 
the  young  pastor  attracted  the  attention  of  all  classes  in  the 
community.  Men  of  letters,  like  John  R.  Thompson,  were 
attracted  by  the  literary  grace  of  his  style;  eminent  legal 
minds,  by  the  clearness  and  cogency  of  his  reasoning;  and 
all  classes  by  the  power  of  the  gospel  message,  freshly 
presented  to  human  needs,  with  a  wealth  of  illustration 
and  a  power  of  human  sympathy  that  found  its  way  to  the 
heart. 

From  the  first,  while  he  did  not  neglect  the  discipline  of 
the  pen,  he  cultivated  the  art  of  extempore  speech.    By  delib- 


86  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

erate  judgment,  or  more  probably  by  a  combination  of  in- 
tuition with  a  process  of  natural  selection,  he  settled  upon  the 
field  he  was  best  fitted  to  occupy — a  preacher  to  the  people. 
That  settled,  he  made  all  else  bend  to  it.  He  did  not  aspire 
to  be  a  scientific  biblical  scholar,  nor  a  profound  and  meta- 
physical theologian,  nor  an  acute  polemic,  nor  a  skilled  eccle- 
siastic. Whatever  success  he  achieved  in  any  of  these  direc- 
tions came  to  him  incidentally.  Had  he  sought  success  in 
any  of  these  lines  he  could  probably  have  achieved  it.  But 
he  would  not  have  been  what  he  was.  The  results  of  the 
best  biblical  scholarship  and  of  the  profoundest  theological 
thought  he  eagerly  acquired.  But  he  left  the  processes  to 
others.  His  task  was  to  take  the  truth  and  make  it  attractive 
and  beautiful,  that  he  might  win  the  hearts  and  guide  the 
consciences  of  the  people,  by  bringing  them  under  its 
power. 

He  first  sought  definiteness  of  thought.  His  creed  was 
clear  and  his  faith  in  it  firm.  It  determined  the  bounds  of 
his  thinking  and  prevented  the  waste  of  his  energies  in 
vagaries  and  novelties.  Any  particular  subject  was  thor- 
oughly thought  out,  and  its  principles  clearly  settled  in  his 
own  mind. 

His  next  aim  was  fulness  of  matter.  The  kingdom  of 
letters  he  loved  for  its  own  sake.  The  thought  of  great  men 
struck  an  answering  chord  in  his  own  soul.  But  he  recog- 
nized in  this  field  the  richest  source  of  the  furnishing  of  a 
man  who  would  make  the  truth  of  God  popular.  Had  he 
been  only  and  distinctly  a  man  of  letters,  his  range  of 
literary  and  historical  knowledge  could  hardly  have  been 
greater. 

With  his  love  of  literature  was  associated  an  intense  love 
of  nature.  The  changes  of  the  seasons,  the  succession  of  day 
and  night,  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  atmos- 
phere; the  beauties  of  landscape  and  sea;  trees,  flowers, 
birds ;  all  had  their  charms,  and  all  were  studied ;  not  scien- 
tifically, but  aesthetically.    With  the  moods  of  nature  he  had 


Early  Ministry.  87 

the  greatest  sympathy,  and  with  the  authors  who  had  mas- 
tered her  moods. 

Another  important  source  of  his  culture  was — what  he 
constantly  deplored  as  an  interruption  of  his  time — the  con- 
stant demands  upon  him,  of  every  sort,  that  made  him,  in 
spite  of  himself,  a  man  of  affairs.  Vexatious,  harassing, 
needless,  as  are  so  many  of  the  calls  made  upon  a  city  pas- 
tor's time,  they  bring  to  him,  as  nothing  else  can,  that  know- 
ledge which  is  hardly  less  essential  to  his  work  than  his 
knowledge  of  God's  word — the  knowledge  of  the  human 
heart,  and  the  springs  that  control  human  action.  He 
learned  to  know  mankind  by  knowing  men.  He  was  a 
master  of  assemblies  because  he  was  a  master  of  individuals. 
If  his  eloquence  touched  every  chord  of  the  human  heart, 
it  was  because  he  knew  the  instrument  upon  which  he 
played.  In  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  he  was  a  man  of 
the  world.  Like  the  Apostle  Paul,  he  could  adapt  himself 
to  all  classes  of  men,  and  there  was  never  any  position  in 
which  he  was  placed  that  he  was  not  master  of  it — and  of 
himself. 

With  all  this  there  was  another  element  that  brought  all 
this  into  play,  and  made  it  all  bear  upon  his  main  end,  his 
freshness  of  interest  and  observation.  Whatever  the  subject 
— the  word  of  God  itself,  history,  literature,  nature,  or  man 
— he  observed  it  for  himself  and  saw  it  with  his  own  eyes. 
And  he  had  eyes  to  see  not  only  the  surface,  but  the  meaning 
of  things,  and  their  hidden  relations.  Underlying  all  other 
qualities  and  acquirements,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say — for 
it  will  speak  for  itself — was  a  profound  and  genuine  spirit- 
uality, a  devoted  spiritual  culture,  and  a  humble  sense  of  his 
dependence  on  God. 

In  these  statements  we  are  not  projecting  the  Dr.  Hoge 
whom  we  knew  in  his  meridian  and  evening  back  into 
the  early  morning  of  his  ministry.  A  few  extracts  from 
letters  of  the  time  will  illustrate  and  sustain  every  statement 
that  has  been  made. 


88  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Writing  to  his  3^ounger  brother  about  some  pieces  of  his 
(May,  1845),  1^^  says: 

Like  most  young  writers,  you  attend  more  to  phrase- 
ology than  to  the  naked,  simple  thought.  That  is  the  main 
thing.  If  you  wish  to  make  an  impression  be  sure  to  have 
a  striking  idea,  and  then  express  it  strongly  and  in  the 
simplest  words.  A  century  ago  more  was  thought  of  a 
rounded  period  and  a  flowing  style  than  at  present ;  now  the 
world  requires  ideas  tersely  and  concisely  expressed.  It  is 
not  so  much  how  you  say  a  thing,  but  what  you  have  to  say. 

By  the  way,  I  think  Macaulay  one  of  the  worst  writers 
to  imitate,  while  he  is  beyond  praise  himself.  There  can 
only  be  one  Johnson,  one  Dryden,  one  Shakespeare,  one 
Milton,  one  Burns,  one  Carlyle,  one  Macaulay.  An  imi- 
tator is  only  a  counterfeit  dollar.  Let  each  man  strike  out 
a  course  for  himself.  All  genius  cannot  be  run  in  the  same 
moulds. 

Again  he  wrote,  in  a  letter  that  is  recalled,  but  now  lost, 
that  it  was  his  custom  in  everything  that  impressed  him  in 
nature,  in  science,  or  in  human  life,  whether  an  incident  that 
came  under  his  own  observation,  or  one  told  in  the  public 
press,  to  ask  himself,  What  spiritual  truth  can  I  illustrate 
by  this? 

It  was  probably  at  a  somewhat  later  period  that  he  began 
his  "Index  Rerum,"  but  it  was  a  development  of  habits 
already  formed.  In  it  is  found,  classified  and  alphabetically 
arranged,  almost  every  conceivable  topic  of  human  interest 
bearing  on  religious  life  and  religious  themes.  These  topics 
were  entered  as  they  occurred  to  him,  and  in  all  his  reading 
or  thinking,  when  he  came  to  anything  bearing  upon  them, 
he  jotted  it  down  beneath  the  appropriate  head.  Thus  there 
grew  up  under  his  hand  a  great  thesaurus  of  subject  and 
treatment  and  illustrations,  ahvays  ready  to  his  hand,  but 
capable  of  endless  variety  in  presentation. 

He  frequently  complains  of  how  little  he  can  accomplish 
on  account  of  interruptions,  but  reveals  at  the  same  time  the 
extent  of  his  aims  and  the  loftiness  of  his  ideal. 


Early  Ministry.  89 

The  following  is  to  his  brother  (1848)  : 

As  to  general  improvement,  I  fear  I  am  making  but 
little  progress.  The  longer  I  live  here  the  more  engage- 
ments multiply  around  me.  I  have  so  much  business  to 
transact  for  various  boards,  societies,  etc.,  together  with  so 
many  interruptions  by  calls  from  friends  and  strangers, 
that  very  little  time  is  left  for  study.  Much  time  has  to  be 
devoted  to  the  preparation  of  pulpit  exercises ;  so  that  I 
have  scarcely  any  opportunity  for  the  prosecution  of  those 
branches  of  knowledge  which  a  minister  should  be  well 
versed  in.  Even  the  general  literature  of  the  day  has  to 
be  neglected.  Sometimes  an  interesting  number  of  a 
review  lies  on  my  table  a  month  before  I  cut  the  leaves,  or 
even  make  myself  acquainted  with  the  table  of  contents. 
Life  is  too  short  for  much  efficient  action,  together  with 
the  acquisition  of  profound  and  various  learning. 

Sometimes,  under  the  pressure  of  this  idea,  he  became  dis- 
•couraged  and  restless. 

He  wrote  Dr.  Plumer  (June,  1848)  : 

If  I  visit  Baltimore  this  summer,  I  may  confer  with  you 
about  leaving  Richmond,  unless,  indeed,  I  come  to  a  de- 
cision before  I  see  you.  Not  that  I  am  tired  of  the  place ; 
not  that  I  have  any  reason  to  believe  the  people  are  tired 
of  me,  but  perhaps  that  is  the  best  state  of  feeling  in  which 
to  separate.  I  have  now  been  here  four  years,  which  it 
strikes  me  is  long  enough  for  a  first  settlement.  The  next 
time  I  might  remain  eight  years  or  longer.  But  I  cannot 
improve,  cannot  study — except  in  the  way  of  direct  pulpit 
preparation — if  I  lead  this  life.  If  I  remain  here  I  shall 
never  be  a  better  preacher  than  I  am  now,  which  is  a  dis- 
couraging anticipation. 

The  spirit  of  prophecy  was  not  on  him  that  day ! 

A  few  more  extracts  will  serve  to  sustain  what  has  been 
said,  and  show  something  of  his  thoughts  at  this  period — 
the  subjects  that  revolved  in  his  mind — his  ideas  about  art, 
nature,  life  and  public  affairs. 


90  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

To  Dr.  Plumer  (1847)  • 

For  more  than  a  year  I  have  been  desirous  of  preaching^ 
a  sermon  on  the  phrase,  "The  King  of  Glory,"  but  the 
theme  is  so  subHme  I  have  been  afraid  to  undertake  it. 
I  wish  at  some  time  you  would  suggest  a  plan  of  a  dis- 
course, for  I  shall  never  be  easy  until  I  have  preached  a 
sermon  upon  it.  Of  course,  a  man  can  succeed  better  by 
following  his  own  divisions,  but  you  can  give  me  the 
skeleton  that  yoii  would  use,  or  at  least  some  valuable 
hints. 

To  Mrs.  Greenleaf  (1846),  about  his  church: 

I  go  in  for  a  stone  Gothic,  rubble  wall,  crevices  for  moss 
and  ivy ;  holes  where  old  Time  may  stick  in  his  memorials ; 
cozy  loop-holes  of  retreat,  where  the  sparrow  may  find  a 
house  for  herself  (and  husband)  and  the  swallow  a  nest 
for  her  young.  The  congregation  are  coming  into  my 
views,  though  I  have  not  yet  imparted  to  them  the  details 
as  touching  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  the  "ivy  green."  I  am 
tired  of  Grecian  temples  with  spires  on  them — as  out  of 
place  on  that  classic  structure  as  a  cockade  would  be  in 
a    parson's    hat.  j-i  The  back  of  the  pul- 

pit   should     run      i^°    r-jx3  up  on  this  wise;   but 

in    this    I    must  /  /  consult  the  shade  of 

John  Calvin. 


The  Gothic  style  9/        \ft        he  secured;  and  the 

pulpit     back,     but       j\  jK        without    the    cross. 

The  stone  he  had  to     /^  ^    forego,  and  after  the 

advent  of  the  Eng-  lish      sparrows     to 

America,  he  was  glad  enough  to  be  without  the  loop-holes. 

To  Mrs.  Greenleaf  (1849),  during  the  prevalence  of 
cholera : 

July  3^.  What  a  delicious  day !  There  is  all  the  luxury 
of  the  fall-feeling  in  it.  The  breeze  is  strong  and  cool. 
The  face  of  nature  wears  a  smile,  in  which  I  see  something 
of  sadness.  My  mind  reverts  to  the  past.  I  seem  to  be 
transported  to  former  scenes  and  again  to  mingle  with  old 
companions 


Early  Ministry.  91$ 

July  6th.  This  singularly  beautiful  weather  continues, 
and  no  chang-e  need  be  expected  until  half-past  four  o'clock 
Sunday  afternoon.^  By  day  the  blue  sky  is  of  liquid  soft- 
ness, by  night  the  moon  is  as  a  burnished  mirror.  But 
these  fresh,  well-tempered  breezes  bring  no  glow  to  the 
wasted  cheek.  These  clear,  sparkling  skies  look  down 
upon  the  sick  and  sorrowing,  and  Nature  smiles  around 
the  tomb. 

To  Doctor  Plumer  (1847),  after  a  visit  to  the  school  for 
the  blind  in  Staunton : 

I  asked  one  of  the  blind  girls  if  she  felt  the  loss  of  sight 
to  be  a  great  deprivation.  She  answered  that  she  did  not. 
I  asked  her  why  it  was  that  she  did  not  deplore  what  was- 
so  generally  regarded  as  a  sore  calamity.  Her  reply  made 
my  eyes  run  over,  for  it  went  right  to  my  heart.  She  said, 
"I  cannot  deplore  the  want  of  sight,  for  I  trust  it  has  been 
the  means  of  leading  me  to  see  Christ !"  I  brought  it  in  in 
a  sermon  I  preached  the  next  night.  Perhaps  you  have- 
heard  of  the  interesting  meeting  I  held  with  the  young 
people  in  Staunton  ^  on  Sabbath  afternoon  while  the  com- 
munion was  administered  in  the  church.  The  lecture- 
room  was  more  than  full,  and  there  was  a  general  indica- 
tion of  deep  emotion,  which  seemed  to  increase  on  Monday. 
One  young  lady  made  a  profession  of  faith  before  I  left,, 
and  I  learn  there  have  been  two  others  since. 

He  is  interested  in  all  that  is  going  on.  To  his  aunt,  Mrs. 
Horace  Lacy,  he  writes  (1845)  • 

We  have  had  very  exciting  times  in  Richmond  during 
the  last  few  weeks:  the  breaking  up  of  the  Legislature, 
the  commencement  of  the  Medical  College,  the  temperance- 
lectures  of  the  (justly)  celebrated  Mr.  Gough,  parades, 
the  transit  (gloria  mundi)  of  Mr.  Tyler,  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Calhoun,  who  is  now  in  the  city. 

He  wrote  Dr.  Plumer  (1847)  of  the  following  incident,, 
which,  despite  the  stiltedness  of  youthful  embarrassment^ 
shows  his  courage  and  conscientiousness : 

*  The  hour  of  his  service.  ^  During  a  meeting  of  synod. 


92  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

You  saw  of  my  being  at  the  Webster  dinner.  It  hap- 
pened in  this  wise.  Just  before  the  hour,  McFarland  came 
to  me  and  told  me  a  ticket  and  a  seat  had  been  provided 
for  me,  and  very  politely  urged  me  to  accept  the  invitation. 
I  very  respectfully  declined,  and  he  still  urged  it,  with  the 
request  that  I  should  ask  a  blessing  before  they  sat  down 
to  the  table.  Just  then  Sidney  Baxter,  who  can  snifif  up 
the  least  indiscretion  in  a  minister,  came  and  joined  in  the 
same  request ;    so  I  consented,  thinking — 

"  What  Cato  did,  and  Addison  approved, 
Must  sure  be  right." 

Mr.  Webster  was  then  in  the  parlor,  receiving  introduc- 
tions to  his  guests.  When  I  was  introduced,  a  rather 
interesting  incident  occurred.  Mr.  Webster  immediately 
commenced  a  serious  conversation,  and  narrated  several 
wonderful  escapes  of  his  from  death — the  last,  you  remem- 
ber, from  the  Atlantic.  Now,  said  I  to  myself.  Providence 
has  thrown  this  opportunity  in  my  way ;  I  am  a  young 
minister,  and  this  is  a  Senator,  but  I  oin  a  minister,  and  he 
a  dying  mortal,  so  I  will  improve  the  occasion.  (You 
know  I  am  never  embarrassed  when  the  pinch  comes.)  So 
I  said  very  deliberately,  "Mr.  Webster,  you  cannot  fail  to 
be  impressed  with  the  special  providence  of  God  in  your 
frequent  preservation — perhaps  you  remember  the  striking 
sentiment  of  the  Psalmist  on  this  subject,  'Whoso  is  zuise, 
and  zvill  observe  these  things,  even  he  shall  understand  the 
loving  kindness  of  the  Lord.'  "  I  saw  instantly  that  Mr. 
Webster  was  pleased,  and  to  this  I  attribute  all  the  respect 
he  paid  me  at  dinner;  I  sat  opposite.  He  pretended  to 
know  my  family,  asked  after  Uncle  James'  health,  etc., 
said  he  meant  to  see  him  before  he  returned  to  Massa- 
chusetts, etc.,  etc.     A  minister  never  loses  by  fidelity. 

I  am  now  set  down  for  a  Whig,  anyhow !  And  some 
Episcopalians  have  expressed  hopes  of  my  conversion ! 

The  last  remark  probably  refers  to  an  incident  mentioned 
in  the  same  letter :  his  preaching  the  funeral  sermon  of  a 
son  of  the  Hon.  John  Minor  Botts  in  St.  James'  Episco- 
pal Church.  The  young  man  lost  his  life  in  the  Mexican 
w^ar,  and  Dr.  Adam  Empie,  the  rector,  finding  that  it  was 
the  wish  of  the  family,  invited  him  to  preach  the  sermon, 


Early  Ministry.  93 

then  customary,  at  the  funeral.  He  sent  a  friend  to  ascertain 
if  any  distinction  would  be  made;  and,  finding  that  the 
whole  church  would  be  open  to  him,  he  accepted.  From  that 
time  he  seems  to  have  been  regarded  in  Richmond  as  within 
the  succession,  officiating  freely  in  Episcopal  churches,  at 
funerals,  marriages,  and  other  services. 

Of  the  effect  of  his  preaching  at  this  time,  the  following 
account  of  a  sermon  at  the  White  Sulphur  Springs  (1847), 
written  in  the  confidence  of  a  husband  to  a  wife,  reveals  his 
own  feelings  and  what  others  thought  and  said : 

At  night  the  room  was  crammed.  All  the  elite  of  the 
place  were  present — the  Singletons,  Brookes,  Lyons,  Stan- 
ards,  Bruces,  Seddons,  etc.,  etc.  I  preached  from  John 
vii.  37;  used  no  MS.,  but  spoke  extempore.  I  never  felt 
so  much  like  preaching  before,  and  never  spoke  with 
greater  comfort  to  myself.     The  audience  was  as  still  as 

death,  until  a  lady  (Mrs.  H that  was,  now  divorced; 

you  know  who  I  mean)  commenced  weeping  aloud,  and 
there  was  so  much  emotion  produced  in  the  audience  that 
I  thought  proper  to  glance  off  from  the  point  I  was  then 
discussing  to  one  not  so  exciting  to  the  feelings.  A  gentle- 
man from  Mobile  told  me  this  morning,  'It  was  one  of  the 
most  considerate  things  he  ever  saw,  for  I  had  the  pas- 
sions of  my  audience  entirely  under  my  command,  and  it 
would  have  been  in  bad  taste  to  have  taken  advantage  of 
the  excitement.'  Several  gamblers  were  present.  Just 
as  I  came  out  of  the  door,  I  heard  one  say  that  he  had 
never  heard  such  preaching  in  his  life  before.  Mr.  Lyons 
the  next  day  paid  me  one  of  the  greatest  compliments  I 
ever  received.  You  know  I  do  not  tell  you  these  things 
through  vanity,  though  I  am  exceedingly  gratified  when- 
ever my  preaching  produces  such  an  impression,  but  be- 
cause I  am  grateful  to  God  when  he  makes  me  instrumental 
in  commanding  the  attention  and  touching  the  heart  of  a 
large  audience.  I  never  prayed  more  fervently  for  divine 
aid,  before  preaching,  than  I  did  on  Sunday  night ;  and 
when  I  returned  to  my  cabin,  it  was,  I  trust,  with  a  heart 
overflowing  with  thankfulness,  that  God  had  heard  my 
prayer,  and  blessed  the  discourse  to  the  good  of  those  who 
heard  it.    Young  Mr.  Smith  told  me  yesterday,  with  tears 


94  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

in  his  eyes,  that  it  was  the  first  time  in  his  life  when  he  was 
sorry  when  a  sermon  ended.  A  great  part  of  it  was  a 
plain,  afifectionate  appeal  to  the  impenitent.  A  seed  may 
fall  by  these  wayside  places,  which  may  bear  fruit  to  the 
glory  of  God. 

Mr.  Clay  arrived  Sunday  night.  I  am  sorry  that  since 
he  has  made  a  profession  of  religion,  he  sets  the  example 
of  travelling  on  Sunday.  He  told  me  yesterday  morning 
he  regretted  he  was  too  much  fatigued  to  attend  preaching 
the  night  before,  having  arrived  late  in  the  stage.  He  said 
he  knew  Grandfather  Hoge,  etc.  He  is  very  plain  in  his 
manners,  and  quite  cheerful.  He  spends  much  of  his  time 
with  the  ladies.  I  had  some  conversation  with  him  on 
religious  topics.  He  speaks  quite  feelingly,  and  I  hope  he 
is  a  converted  man. 

Mr.  Lyons  this  evening,  after  tea,  took  me  by  the  arm 
and  said  he  wished  to  take  me  to  his  cabin  and  introduce 
me  to  the  ladies.  Mr.  Clay  was  there,  and  had  there  been 
a  good  light  in  the  room,  the  company  might  have  seen  me 
blush  at  a  remark  he  made.  He  commenced  talking  again 
about  my  preaching,  and  said,  "I  was  very  sorry  I  was  so 
tired  as  not  to  be  able  to  get  out  on  Sunday  night  at  the 
time,  but  I  regret  it  the  more  since  I  have  heard  f7'om  so 
many  zvhat  a  sermon  you  preached."  I  confess  I  never  felt 
more  foolish,  but  I  immediately  made  a  remark  which 
changed  the  conversation. 

His  personal  power  over  men  is  illustrated  by  the  way  men 
looked  to  him  instinctively  as  the  one  person  who  could  have 
prevented  one  of  the  most  distressing  affairs  that  ever  threw 
its  shadow  over  Richmond — the  Ritchie-Pleasants  duel.  To 
a  friend  who  had  written  to  him  for  particulars,  he  first 
quotes  an  allusion  he  made  to  it  in  a  sermon  the  following 
Sunday : 

Almost  every  succeeding  week  convinces  the  minister  of 
reconciliation  of  the  solemnity  and  urgency  of  these  con- 
siderations— and  O  how  does  his  soul  faint  and  die  within 
him  as  he  sees  one  after  another  of  those  with  whom  he  has 
reasoned  and  prayed  and  wept,  and  who  have  admitted  the 
propriety  of  all,  suddenly  cut  ofiF  and  called  to  the  last  ac- 


Early  Ministry.  95 

count.  But  day  before  yesterday,  returning  home  after  a 
few  weeks'  absence,  as  the  spires  of  our  city  fell  upon  my 
eye,  all  anticipations  of  pleasant  meeting  with  family  and 
friends  were  forgotten  in  the  remembrance  of  one  who 
heard  his  last  sermon  in  this  house,  and  bitter  tears  would 
gush  forth  as  this  text  came  forcibly  to  mind  in  its  applica- 
tion to  him,  "Oh !  that  thou  hadst  known,  even  thou,  the 
things  that  belonged  to  thy  peace — but  now" — 

He  then  proceeds  with  his  account : 

I  have  visited  the  bereaved  family  since  my  return ;  all 
their  grief  seemed  to  break  forth  anew  as  I  entered  the 
room.  His  sister  clasped  her  hands  and  exclaimed,  "O 
merciful  God,  Mr.  Hoge,  if  you  had  been  here,  my  brother 
had  not  died."  And  there  sat  his  old  grey-headed  mother 
the  picture  of  woe — smitten  of  God  and  afflicted.  What 
comfort  could  I  give  them?  Yet  I  tried.  His  mother 
remembered  with  great  satisfaction  that  ever  since  his 
conversation  with  me  he  had  regularly  retired  every  day  to 
read  his  Testament.  He  directed  that  it  should  be  buried 
with  him,  and  assured  his  mother  that  he  was  trying  to  fix 
his  entire  view  upon  the  Saviour  of  sinners.  He  ex- 
pressed great  anxiety  to  see  me  again — wished  a  friend  to 
inform  Ritchie  that  he  pardoned  him.  With  regard  to  the 
duel  itself,  he  seemed  to  feel  that  he  had  discharged  an 
imperative  duty.  He  went  to  the  field  to  offer  himself  a 
sacrifice,  if  necessary,  to  the  sentiment  that  honor  is  dearer 
than  life.  The  whole  affair  was  extraordinary  to  the  last 
-degree.  Pleasants  determined  not  to  kill  Ritchie  in  any 
event,  and  it  is  supposed  that  he  got  up  in  the  night  and 
drew  the  balls  from  his  pistols,  which  his  seconds  had 
loaded  at  eleven  o'clock  for  the  meeting,  which  was  to 
take  place  at  sunrise.  This  he  declared  before  he  died,  and 
the  proof  is  that  he  did  fire  one  pistol  directly  in  Ritchie's 
breast,  which  caused  him  to  recoil,  stunned  and  almost 
burned  through  the  flesh.  All  wondered  why  he  did  not 
fall ;  but  the  mystery  was  solved  after  the  affray  by  finding 
a  wad  in  his  bosom.  Pleasants  had  him  perfectly  in  his 
power  then,  but  chose  to  fire  a  blank  cartridge.  It  was 
perfect  self-immolation. 

Seldom  has  any  event  caused  such  gloom  in  a  commu- 


96  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

nity.  His  funeral  took  place  on  Sunday  (the  Sabbath  after 
his  death,  I  mean)  in  Mr.  Stiles'  church.  One  of  Mr. 
Pleasants'  sisters  was  a  member  of  that  church,  hence  the 
selection  of  Mr.  Stiles.  Thus  was  I  saved  a  mournful 
duty.  Several  of  the  churches  were  closed  on  that  day, 
and  an  immense  procession  followed  the  hearse  to  the. 
burying-ground. 

Unusual  regret  was  expressed  in  Richmond  that  I  should 
have  been  absent.  I  cannot  tell  how  many  have  made  the 
same  remark  to  me,  "If  you  had  been  at  home,  the  duel 
would  not  have  taken  place.  No  one  else  could  have  pre- 
vented it."  Humanly  speaking,  this  is  true.  I  knew  ex- 
actly how  to  touch  Pleasants,  and  his  affection  for  me 
made  my  influence  over  him  very  great.  Susan  tells  me 
that  I  was  written  to  by  persons  knowing  that  the  prelimi- 
naries of  the  duel  were  under  consideration,  requesting  me 
to  interfere. 

But  it  is  in  vain  now  to  say  what  would  or  could  have 
been  done.  Providence  saw  fit  that  the  whole  event  should 
occur  just  when  and  as  it  did.  It  is  all  over  now — ^all  irre- 
parable— and  what  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter? 
Honor  is  appeased ;  put  that  in  one  scale :  and  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  lights  of  Virginia  has  been  quenched,  a  soul 
has  been  hurried  into  eternity,  his  slayer  by  this  act  has 
fastened  the  undying  worm  to  his  own  heart,  several  fami- 
lies have  been  filled  with  bitter,  hopeless  lamentation,  and 
a  whole  community  has  been  made  to  mourn ;  put  that  in 
the  other. 


In  the  early  part  of  1847  Dr.  Plumer  removed  to  Balti- 
more. Mr.  Hoge  was  thus  deprived  of  his  "guide,  philoso- 
pher and  friend" — as  he  once  termed  him — and  at  the  same 
time  many  new  duties  and  responsibilities  were  thrown  upon 
him.  As  the  only  (Old  School)  Presbyterian  minister  in  the 
city,  he  was  naturally  brought  into  greater  prominence,  and 
that  position  of  leadership  was  ever  afterwards  accorded  to 
him.  The  very  spring  after  Dr.  Plumer's  removal  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly,  then  embracing  the  whole  country,  was  to 
meet  in  the  First  Church,  and  the  whole  responsibility  fell 
upon  Mr.  Hoge.     He  wrote  his  brother  (April,  1847)  • 


Early  Ministry.  97 

Since  Dr.  Plumer  removed  to  Baltimore,  I  have  been 
the  only  Old  School  minister  in  Richmond,  and  have,  in 
consequence,  been  much  engrossed  by  pastoral  and  other 
duties.  Besides  my  regular  engagements,  I  am  on  the 
building  committee  of  our  new  church,  and  teach  two 
Bible  classes.  Added  to  all,  I  have  been  quite  unwell  for 
two  or  three  weeks,  though  not  sick  enough  to  be  laid  up. 
I  was,  indeed,  confined  to  my  room  one  week;  but  as  I 
lay  on  my  sofa,  I  composed  a  sermon,  and  when  Sabbath 
came,  I  procured  a  carriage,  rode  to  church,  preached  and 
came  back  to  bed  again. 

We  are  looking  forward  with  much  interest  to  the  meet- 
ing of  the  General  Assembly,  which  convenes  in  Richmond 
in  May.  If  you  could  break  off  from  your  present  engage- 
ments and  come  to  Virginia,  it  would  be  your  best  oppor- 
tunity for  making  a  visit.  Cousin  Moses  Andrew  is 
coming,  with  his  wife,  and  Uncle  James  also — at  least,  such 
was  his  expectation  when  I  saw  him  last  fall.  There  will 
be  a  tremendous  concourse  here  on  that  occasion.  Even 
an  ordinary  ecclesiastical  meeting  attracts  much  attention 
and  many  visitors  in  Virginia;  but  a  General  Assembly 
will  turn  the  whole  State  topsy-turvey.  Uncle  Drury  Lacy 
writes  me  that  he  is  coming,  as  well  as  several  other  rela- 
tives and  old  friends.  I  fear,  however,  that  I  shall  not 
enjoy  the  meeting  a  great  deal,  for  it  will  be  a  time  of 
incessant  labor  and  anxiety  to  me.  The  First  Church,  in 
which  the  Assembly  will  meet,  has  no  pastor,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  work,  such  as  making  arrangements  for 
preaching,  seeing  to  the  accommodations  of  the  delegates, 
etc.,  will  be  devolved  upon  me;  this  will  so  absorb  my  time 
as  to  leave  very  little  opportunity  for  social  enjoyment. 

About  the  same  time  he  wrote  Dr.  Plumer  with  regard  to  the 
First  Church  : 

The  session  have  treated  me  with  a  delicate  regard,  of 
which  I  am  gratefully  sensible.  They  seem  anxious  to 
select  a  man  who  will  be  agreeable  to  me,  and  who  would 
probably  work  with  me  in  good-will  and  harmony. 

The  choice  fell  on  the  Rev.  Thomas  Verner  Moore,  with 
whom  Mr.  Hoge  was  most  favorably  impressed  from  the 


98  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

first,  and  with  whom  there  grew  up  a  delightful  intimacy 
and  life-long  friendship.  It  would  have  been  difficult  to  find 
two  ministers  working  in  more  perfect  harmony,  or  with 
more  mutual  affection  and  admiration. 

Mr.  Hoge  was  full  of  plans  for  the  development  and 
building  up  of  the  Presbyterian  cause.  He  once  wrote 
Dr.  Plumer  that  he  thought  it  better  to  fail  in  a  good 
many  things  than  to  work  in  old  ruts  and  attempt  nothing. 
He  was  early  impressed  with  the  need  of  church  schools. 
Writing  to  Dr.  Plumer  of  Mr.  Sterling's  departure,  he 
said: 

By  this  move  I  shall  lose  an  excellent  and  efficient  elder, 
and  always  ready  to  come  into  my  views  of  things  and 
aid  me  in  all  my  plans.  After  January  ist,  we  will  have 
no  Presbyterian  school  for  boys  in  Richmond.  So  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  enlighten  myself  on  the  subject  of  pa- 
rochial schools,  I  approve  of  the  system,  and  I  have 
thought  this  would  be  a  good  time  to  break  ground  on  the 
subject  here. 

This  enterprise  he  prosecuted  vigorously  and  successfully, 
and  a  classical  school  was  for  some  time  maintained  under 
his  general  oversight.  But  other  events  were  working  out 
to  bring  him  more  actively  into  educational  work.  Early 
in  1848  he  wrote  his  brother: 

At  present  I  am  occupying  a  field  of  difficulty  and  re- 
sponsibility. To  build  up  a  new  church  in  a  city  is  an 
arduous  undertaking,  one  requiring  self-denial,  energy  and 
much  patience — qualities  in  which  I  am  sadly  deficient. 
Providence  has,  however,  thus  far  smiled  on  my  labors, 
and  by  another  year  I  expect  to  see  my  church  the  leading 
Presbyterian  church  in  the  city,  in  point  of  standing,  in- 
fluence, and  enterprise.  The  new  edifice,  now  nearly 
completed,  will  be  the  most  beautiful  structure  of  the  kind 
in  the  State.  It  is  a  pure  specimen  of  severe  Gothic  arch- 
itecture within  and  without,  and  has  been  pronounced  by 
good  judges  to  be  as  faultless  a  model  of  the  order  as 


SECOND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,   RICHMOND,   VA. 


Early  Ministry.  99 

the  country  contains.  It  was  a  great  undertaking  for  a 
congregation  so  new  and  so  small  to  erect  such  a  build- 
ing, but  I  hope  our  liabilities  will  all  be  met  as  they  be- 
come due,  so  that  in  a  reasonable  time  we  may  be  free  from 
debt. 


But,  as  so  often  happens  with  a  new  enterprise  under  a 
young  and  popular  minister,  the  financial  strength  of  the 
congregation  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  audi- 
ence and  the  demand  for  increased  seating  capacity.  The 
church  was  built,  but  it  was  burdened  with  a  debt  beyond 
the  strength  of  the  congregation.  They  had  not  built  ex- 
travagantly, but  to  meet  the  reasonable  expectations  of 
the  future.  But  it  was  more  than  they  could  stand.  It 
is  difficult  for  large  and  flourishing  churches  to  meet 
their  regular  expenses;  how,  then,  can  young  churches, 
struggling  into  existence,  be  expected  to  do  this  and  provide 
buildings  adequate  for  their  future  needs  at  the  same  time? 
It  is  one  of  the  most  serious  problems  of  church  extension. 
The  little  band  struggled  earnestly  with  their  problem,  but 
business  failures  and  removals  increased  their  difficulties, 
and  at  last  they  had  to  confess  failure.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
officers  and  others  interested,  the  problem  was  canvassed  in 
every  phase,  and  the  conclusion  was  reached  that  the  church 
must  be  sold.  But  there  was  one  factor  with  which  they  had 
not  fully  reckoned — their  leader.  It  was  in  this  crisis  that  he 
displayed  the  stuff  that  heroes  are  made  of,  the  power  to  rise 
to  a  crisis  and  master  it.  When  all  had  expressed  them- 
selves, he  quietly  informed  them  that  the  church  would  not 
be  sold;  that  his  salary  would  be  applied  to  the  payment  of 
the  debt,  and  he  would  support  himself  by  teaching,  as  long 
as  was  necessary. 

His  opportunity  came  shortly  afterwards.  He  had 
written  Dr.  Plumer  of  his  intentions  about  his  salary,  and 
(July  29,  1848,)  writes  him  of  the  working  out  of  his 
scheme : 


lOO  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

I  welcomed  your  letter  this  evening,  not  only  on  account 
of  hearing-  from  you  again,  but  because  you  were  the  first 
friend  at  a  distance  to  approve  of  my  scheme,  and  to  wish 
me  success. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  of  Mrs.  Carrington's  determination 
to  leave  Richmond,  I  saw  that  there  was  no  time  to  lose,  or 
the  game  would  pass  (and,  perhaps,  for  years)  out  of  our 
hands.  And  not  being  able  to  think  of  any  one  who  would 
make  a  suitable  successor,  I  concluded  to  undertake  the 
matter  myself. 

I  came  to  this  resolution  without  consulting  a  single 
human  being.  I  mentioned  my  intention  to  several  friends 
one  day,  and  wrote  my  advertisement  the  next.  The  first 
intimation  my  church  had  of  the  affair  was  from  the  news- 
papers. One  thing  has  encouraged  me  much,  the  universal 
favor  with  which  it  seems  to  be  received.  All  seem  con- 
fident that  I  shall  have  a  large  school.  I  thought  it 
probable  that  some  members  of  my  church  would  object  to 
my  undertaking  such  an  additional  charge.  I  did  not 
intend  to  change  my  course  if  they  should  object;  but  I 
am  pleased  to  find  that  my  whole  congregation,  so  far  as 
I  can  learn,  are  heartily  in  favor  of  it. 

Doctor,  I  have  one  fortune — may  God  long  continue  it 
to  me ;  I  am  rich  in  the  possession  of  one  of  the  best  of 
wives.  How  few  men  could  have  taken  such  a  step  as  I 
have  done — one  so  much  involving  the  happiness  of  a 
wife — while  she  was  absent,  and  without  even  consulting 
her  by  letter.  There  was  no  time  for  this,  and  Susan  saw 
my  advertisement,  perhaps,  the  same  day  that  she  read  my 
letter  informing  her  that  she  was  to  leave  her  pleasant 
rooms  and  easy  life  at  the  Exchange  for  the  anxieties  and 
labors  of  a  large  boarding  school.  I  calculated  on  her 
consent.  I  knew  she  would  not  say  a  word  in  objection, 
but  I  confess  I  was  not  prepared  for  such  a  letter  as  she 
wrote  me.  You  are  no  Mr.  Wet-Eyes,  but  you  could  not 
read  her  letter  without  being  at  the  expense  of  a  tear  or 
so.  She  says  not  a  word  about  her  own  cares  and  respon- 
sibilities, but,  woman-like,  and  good-wife-like,  is  very 
anxious  lest  I  may  have  undertaken  too  much  for  my 
strength ;  assures  me  that  her  conscious  want  of  qualifica- 
tion to  be  a  pastor's  wife  has  been  her  only  source  of  dis- 
quiet and  discouragement  since  our  marriage;    but  now 


Early  Ministry.  ioi 

she  is  thankful  that  providence  has  opened  a  door  of  use- 
fuhiess  even  to  her,  and  that  perhaps  her  unremitting 
exertions  may  enable  her  to  be  of  some  use  to  me,  and  to 
others,  and  give  me  less  cause  for  regret  that  I  have  mar- 
ried one  so  unqualified  for  a  position  like  hers ! 

Susan  has  a  fine  turn  for  business ;  she  is  an  excellent 
accountant  (inherited),  and  an  admirable  housekeeper. 

I  now  see  the  use  that  may  be  made  of  these  qualities 
which  I  have  given  her  no  opportunity  to  display  before.  A 
prudent  wife  is  from  the  Lord.  I  shall  entrust  all  such  mat- 
ters to  her,  or  make  her  secretary  of  the  treasury  at  least. 

Such  was  the  origin  of  what  became  for  many  years  one 
of  the  great  institutions  of  Richmond—  continued  long  after 
the  immediate  object  had  been  achieved,  because  of  its  great 
value  to  the  church  and  the  cause  of  Christian  education. 

The  school  was  located  in  a  large  frame  building  occupy- 
ing the  centre  of  a  large  lot  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Fifth 
and  Franklin  street,  now  occupied  by  five  handsome  resi- 
dences. This  became  his  home  until  he  moved  to  the  house 
adjoining  his  church. 

The  church  was  dedicated  in  the  early  part  of  1848, 
Dr.  Plumer  preaching  the  dedication  sermon,  in  fulfil- 
ment of  Mr.  Hoge's  cherished  desire,  and  his  friend,  John 
R.  Thompson,  contributing  the  following  hymn,  which  was 
first  sung  on  this  occasion : 

Dedication  Hymn. 

Lord !   thou  hast  said  where  two  or  three 
Together  come  to  worship  thee, 
Thy  presence,  fraught  with  richest  grace, 
Shall  ever  fill  and  bless  the  place. 

Then  let  us  feel,  as  here  we  raise 
A  temple  to  thy  matchless  praise, 
The  blest  assurance  of  thy  love 
As  it  is  felt  in  realms  above. 

Lord !    here  upon  thy  sacred  day 
Teach  us  devoutly  how  to  pray; 
Our  weakness  let  thy  strength  supply, 
Nor  to  our  darkness  light  deny. 


I02  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Here  teach  our  faltering  tongues  to  sing 
The  glories  of  the  Heavenly  King, 
And  let  our  aspirations  rise 
To  seek  the  Saviour  in  the  skies. 

And  vi^hen  at  last,  in  life's  decline, 
This  earthly  temple  we  resign. 
May  we,  O  Lord,  enjoy  with  thee 
The  Sabbaths  of  eternity! 


CHAPTER  VI. 

In  Full  Service. 
1851  —  1S60. 

"Get  leave  to  work 
In  this  world  ;  'tis  the  best  you  get  at  all ; 
For  God,  in  cursing,  gives  us  better  gifts 
Than  man  in  benediction.     God  says,  '  Sweat, 
For  foreheads' ;  men  say,  '  Crowns' ;  and  so  we  are  crowned ; 
Aye,  gashed  by  some  tormenting  circle  of  steel 
Which  snaps  with  a  secret  spring.     Get  work  !  Get  work." 

— Robert  Browning, 

IN  the  scholastic  year  of  i850-'5i,  the  Rev.  WilHam 
H.  Ruffner,  then  chaplain  of  the  University  of  Virginia, 
inaugurated  a  course  of  lectures  before  the  students  of  that 
institution,  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  which  were 
afterwards  published  in  a  handsome  octavo  volume.  The 
lecturers  were  all  selected  from  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as 
the  chaplaincy  is  held  in  rotation  by  the  different  religious 
denominations,  giving  others  the  opportunity  to  follow  a 
like  course  in  their  turn.  The  list  of  lecturers  includes  the 
foremost  men  from  all  parts  of  the  church :  William  S. 
Plumer,  then  of  Baltimore,  who  delivered  the  opening  lec- 
ture; Alexander  M'Gill,  of  Alleghany;  James  W.  Alexan- 
der, of  New  York;  Robert  J.  Breckinridge,  and  Stuart 
Robinson,  of  Kentucky ;  N.  L.  Rice,  of  Cincinnati ;  all  men 
who  had  achieved  national  reputation  in  the  church.  With 
them  were  a  number  of  the  more  prominent  ministers  of 
Virginia — men  like  Dr.  Sampson,  of  Union  Seminary;  Dr. 
B.  M.  Smith,  his  predecessor  and  successor  in  the  Seminary, 
but  then  of  Staunton ;  Dr.  Green,  the  President  of  Hampden- 
Sidney  College ;  Dr.  Henry  Ruffner,  of  Washington  College, 
and  others.  With  this  group  of  older  men  are  found  three  of 
the  younger  men  of  the  Synod :  Van  Zandt,  of  Peters- 
burg, and  Moore  and  Hoge,  of  Richmond ;  the  last  probably 


I04  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  youngest  of  all.  His  name  seems  natural  in  such  com- 
pany now,  but  then  he  was  less  than  thirty-three  years  of 
age,  and  he  had  just  completed  the  sixth  year  of  his  ministry. 
It  marks  his  entrance  into  full  service,  among  men  of  recog- 
nized standing  in  the  church. 

The  lecture  was  on  a  subject  well  suited  to  him :  The  Suc- 
cess of  Christianity  an  Evidence  of  its  Divine  Origin ;  bring- 
ing into  play  his  fine  mastery  of  history.  It  was  delivered  in 
two  parts,  the  evening  lecture  having  especial  relation  to 
Gibbon's  "Second  Causes."  One  remarkable  feature  of  the 
lecture — partly  growing  out  of  the  subject,  but  more  out  of 
his  ability  to  seize  the  permanent  element  in  things — is  that, 
while  many  of  the  lectures  in  the  course  are  so  entirely  out 
of  date  as  to  be  useless  now,  this  lecture  would  be  as  profit- 
able now  as  the  day  it  was  delivered.  A  high  authority  has 
recently  said  of  it  that  "in  the  whole  realm  of  apologetic  lit- 
erature there  is  not  a  more  polished  or  powerful  demonstra- 
tion of  Christianity." 

It  will  be  interesting,  therefore,  to  read  his  own  humorous 
account  (to  Dr.  Plumer)  of  the  extraordinary  disadvan- 
tages under  which  it  was  delivered.  Perhaps  "some  forlorn 
and  shipwrecked  brother,"  suffering  under  similar  trials, 
"seeing,  may  take  heart  again  "  : 

This  week's  Watchman  will  give  you  Rufifner's  impres- 
sions of  the  lecture  of  the  course !  But  it  does  not  contain 
any  account  of  the  strange  scenes  which  preceded  its  de- 
livery. You  may  remember  that  last  Sunday  was  a  very 
warm  day.  Well,  the  sexton,  having  peculiar  notions  with 
regard  to  temperature — I  mean  peculiar  to  all  the  colored 
brethren,  that  when  the  weather  is  warm  a  tremendous 
fire  is  necessary — shut  all  the  doors  and  windows  of  the 
chapel  and  made  the  stove  red-hot.  The  consequence  was 
that  as  soon  as  the  audience  crowded  in,  some  of  the  ladies 
became  faint.  One  leaned  up  against  the  wall,  white  as 
the  wall  itself,  and  had  to  be  carried  out.  This  made  a 
sensation.  Then  such  an  opening  of  windows  and  shutters 
and  doors  never  was  seen.    Professor  Minor  took  a  pitcher 


In  Full  Service.  105 

-of  water  and  tried  to  put  out  the  fire,  causing  a  sweet  smell 
and  a  most  agreeable  hissing. 

Quiet  being  restored,  as  the  choir  was  performing,  the 
string,  or  something,  about  the  melodeon  snapped  and 
threw  all  the  singers  out.  The  hymn  being  ended,  during 
the  first  prayer  one  of  the  students  uttered  a  most  dismal 
and  fearful  groan,  that  still  rings  in  my  ears,  and  fell  back 
in  a  fit.  This,  of  course,  suspended  all  the  exercises.  Five 
or  six  of  the  students  took  him  up  and  carried  him  out  to 
see  what  was  the  matter,  followed  by  all  the  doctors.  The 
best  thing  I  could  do  was  to  give  out  a  long  hymn.  While 
they  were  singing  it  the  outsiders  began  to  return,  and  by 
the  time  it  was  ended,  all  had  returned,  the  alarm  having 
subsided  when  it  was  known  that  the  young  man  was  sub- 
ject to  such  attacks.  I  thought  it  would  be  impossible  to 
engage  the  attention  of  the  audience  after  such  distracting 
scenes ;  but,  strange  to  say,  perfect  quiet  and  the  very  best 
attention  prevailed  as  soon  as  the  lecture  commenced,  and 
nothing  occurred  to  interrupt  it  during  its  delivery,  which 
occupied  just  an  hour.  At  night  there  was  a  real  jam. 
Extra  benches  were  brought  in  and  filled,  and  then  chairs 
were  set  wherever  there  was  a  vacant  spot ;  I  suppose 
fifty  could  not  squeeze  in,  and  stood  at  the  windows  out- 
side. Many  of  the  Charlottesville  people  were  there,  and 
this  was  the  cause  of  the  exclusion  of  so  many  of  the 
students.  Ruffner  is  mistaken  about  the  "nail  in  a  sure 
place."  The  lecture  was  heard  with  evident  emotion,  but 
it  will  not  read  well,  and  I  am  sorry  that  it  must  be 
printed.  It  will  go  down  to  posterity  because  of  the  com- 
pany it  will  be  in,  and  not  because  of  any  intrinsic  merits, 
and  thus  it  will  be  preserved,  like  a  fly  in  amber. 

In  this  connection,  the  following  is  too  good  to  be  lost : 

Petersburg,  Va.,  October  6,  1851. 
My  Dear  Fellow  :  You  know  I  gave  you  to  understand 
some  time  since  that  it  was  a  hazardous  experiment  for 
you  to  sufter  your  lecture  to  be  printed  in  the  same  volume 
with  mine.  That  presumption,  however,  I  could  forgive, 
as  the  venial  sin  of  a  youthful  authorship.  Indeed,  I 
rather  admired  the  daring  with  which  a  man  of  your  size 
swaggered,  as  if  at  home  among  the  rest  of  us  giants,  and 
.so  long  as  the  fond  dream  of  your  equality  was  confined  to 


io6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

your  intellectual  stature,  I  was  little  disposed  to  break  the 
hallucination.  But  when,  from  RutTner's  twaddle  about 
your  "impressive  face,"  you  began  to  think  that  in  personal 
appearance  you  were  also  likely  to  cut  a  figure,  you  know 
I  warned  you  on  the  steamboat  against  any  such  delusion. 

"  O  wad  some  power  the  giftie  gie  us. 
To  see  oursel's  as  others  see  us." 

The  invocation  is  answered,  and  here  you  are !  Did  ever 
man  behold  the  like  ?  And  this  is  to  go  forth  to  the  world 
as  the  likeness  of  my  friend  Hoge?  Shades  of  darkness! 
why  did  ye  not  cover  it  all,  and  not  leave  even  the  tip  of  a 
nose,  or  the  sign  of  a  shirt  collar  to  indicate  the  resem- 
blance? Couldn't  you  bribe  the  engraver  to  make  you  look 
somewhat  respectable  ?  My  dear  fellow,  consider  the  com- 
pany you  are  in,  and  for  the  sake  of  your  friends  and 
family  do  try  to  look  like  a  Christian.  I  grant  you,  it  is 
a  "striking  face,"  but  then  I  should  say  it  was  rather  in 
the  passive  voice,  a  face  that  had  been  struck.  Your  right 
eye  seems  to  be  looking  up,  as  if  to  penetrate  the  shades  of 
that  overarching  brow,  whilst  the  left  is  equally  intent 
upon  exploring  the  darkness  of  the  regions  below.  There 
is  rather  a  pleasing  hiatus  in  your  features  between  the 
nose  and  upper  lip,  which  leaves  room  for  the  imagination 
to  fancy  an  imperial,  but  then  your  head,  "disjecta  inein- 
hra,"  is  divided  from  your  neck  by  a  girdle  of  cimmerian 
darkness,  bounded  on  its  nethermost  extremity  by  the 
dubious  lines  of  a  shirt  collar.    But  I  forbear. 

Pray  comfort  your  wife  with  the  consideration  that  it  is 
so  like  yon.  Dr.  Plumer  recognized  it  in  a  moment,  and 
begged  hard  that  I  would  give  it  to  him,  but  I  wouldn't; 
no,  not  I !  And  then  he  laughed — how  he  did  laugh ;  I 
don't  know  but  he  is  laughing  yet — and  I  am  so  much  dis- 
posed to  laugh  myself  I  really  can't  write  any  more. 
Yours  in  tears  of  cachinnatory  sympathy, 

A.  B.  Van  Zandt. 

P.  S. — My  dear  Hoge,  pardon  me  for  showing  the 
within  to  Plumer,  I  couldn't  resist;  and  lest  you  should 
proclaiin  war  against  Carter,  let  me  say  that  this  is  the 
proof  impression  of  the  unfinished  plate  which  I  picked  up 
at  the  engravers,  and  it  bears  no  resemblance  to  the  sub- 
sequent impressions.    Hope  to  see  you  at  presbytery. 

Truly  yours,  A.  B.  Van  Z.. 


In  Full  Service.  107 

The  proof  in  question  is  still  extant,  and  confirms  to  the 
mind  of  one  of  Dr.  Hoge's  children  the  story  of  the  pirate 
ancestor  of  the  Lacys.  The  engraving  as  it  appeared 
in  the  volume  was  a  respectable  likeness,  but  represents  a 
much  older  looking  man  than  Dr.  Hoge  appeared  many 
years  after.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  old-fashioned  style  of 
the  beard,  but  yet  more  to  the  increased  vitality  of  his  later 
years. 

The  story  of  this  decade  can  best  be  told  in  the  letters  of 
the  time,  that  may,  in  the  main,  be  allowed  to  speak  for 
themselves.  The  first  belongs  to  the  previous  year,  but  is  in- 
troductory to  the  events  of  this  period. 

To  Dr.  Plumer  (March  21,  1850)  : 

During  the  present  month  I  have  been  trying  to  find 
some  one  suitable  to  assist  me  in  my  school.  I  do  not  com- 
plain, nor  do  I  encourage  others  to  condole  with  or  pity 
me ;  but  the  fact  is.  Doctor,  this  double  work  is  killing  me. 
I  am  faithful  and  laborious  both  in  my  school  and  in  prep- 
aration for  the  pulpit.  I  have  a  growing  estimate  of  what 
a  sermon  should'  be,  and  am  more  and  more  unwilling  to 
enter  the  pulpit  with  imperfect  preparation.  I  cannot  con- 
sent to  fall  below  what  I  am  capable  of  doing,  and  that  is 
putting  the  standard  low  enough.  But  to  make  three  ser- 
mons a  week,  even  such  sermons  as  I  preach,  and  to  teach 
six  hours  a  day,  is  more  than  I  can  stand.  But  while  I  am 
at  the  head  of  the  school,  I  cannot  keep  out  of  it,  and  leave 
the  work  to  my  assistants.  Hence  my  desire  to  find  some- 
one capable  of  taking  charge  of  the  entire  establishment.  I 
have  got  the  thing  fairly  in  motion.  It  has  been  the  largest 
school  in  the  city  ever  since  I  commenced,  and  now  it  may 
be  safely  turned  over  to  any  popvilar  and  competent  man, 
and  to  such  a  man  it  will  furnish  a  handsome  revenue. 
But  I  cannot  find  him.  I  am  willing  to  take  a  class  in  the 
school,  say  for  an  hour  a  day,  if  my  connection  with  it  will 
be  of  any  advantage,  as  I  think  it  will.  I  wish  I  could  sell 
out  during  my  next  vacation.  I  do  not  know  of  another 
opening  so  desirable  in  Virginia  for  a  teacher  who  wishes 
to  establish  himself  permanently  and  comfortably.  Do 
you  know  of  any  one  who  would  suit  and  be  suited  here? 


io8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

If  you  do,  please  inform  me  that  I  may  open  a  correspond- 
ence at  once. 

The  course  of  lectures  to  young  men,  about  which  I 
wrote  you,  is  succeeding.  The  church  is  now  nearly  as  full 
when  a  lecture  is  delivered  as  it  was  at  the  dedication. 
Extra  benches  have  to  be  brought  in  and  placed  in  the 
aisles.  Van  Zandt  delivered  a  splendid  discourse  on  "The 
Evils  of  a  Perverted  Imagination."  How  much  I  wish 
you  could  be  with  us  one  Sabbath,  especially  that  you  would 
come  and  deliver  a  discourse  on  "Decision  of  Character." 
That  would  be  the  theme  for  you  to  handle,  and  you  know 
how  much  our  young  men  need  instruction  on  that  subject. 
The  majority  of  the  young  men  in  Richmond  seem  to  have 
no  aim  in  life ;  they  do  nothing,  aspire  to  nothing.  They 
saunter  about  in  the  most  miserable  vacuity,  and  actually 
seem  too  lazy  to  serve  the  devil  with  any  briskness  or 
spirit.  I  never  bore  anybody  with  entreaties,  and  will  not 
importune  you ;  yet  I  cannot  help  hoping  that  you  will  yet 
send  me  a  consent  to  come  during  the  next  six  weeks. 

No  satisfactory  arrangement  was  made  for  the  school  that 
year,  but  the  follov^^ing  year  events  were  so  providentially 
ordered  that  a  most  delightful  relief  came  to  him. 

His  brother  William  had  been  led  by  strange  ways  into 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  In  1847,  while  teaching  in  Gal- 
latin, Tenn.,  he  had  married  the  lovely  young  daughter  of 
Mr.  John  P.  Ballard,  of  Athens.  He  had  returned  to  Athens 
to  occupy  the  chair  in  the  University  formerly  filled  by  his 
father.  His  marriage  had  been  blessed  with  two  children, 
Elizabeth  Lacy  and  Addison — the  latter  the  namesake  of  his 
wife's  brother,  Dr.  Addison  Ballard,  now  of  the  New 
York  University.  In  the  bloom  of  her  youth  she  had  been 
called  to  the  presence  of  the  Saviour  she  loved  and  trusted, 
on  January  16,  1850.  A  month  later  her  husband  made  the 
following  record :  "This  bereavement  brought  me,  through 
grace,  to  preach  the  gospel.  I  preached  my  first  sermon,  by 
the  direction  of  Cousin  Moses  A.  Hoge,  my  pastor,  at  Mill- 
field,  nine  miles  from  Athens."  He  was  licensed  to  preach 
by  the  Presbytery  of  Hocking,  September  11,  1850,  and  or- 


In  Full  Service.  109 

dainecl  at  Millfiekl,  a  little  church  whose  pastorate  he  ac- 
cepted in  connection  with  his  professorship,  April  29,  1851. 
The  following  summer  his  brother  wrote  to  Dr.  Plumer 
(July  25,  1851): 

It  will  be  eight  years  next  October  since  I  came  to  Rich- 
mond.^ They  have  been  eight  years  of  happiness  to  me. 
I  wish  I  could  add,  eight  years  of  usefulness.  It  is  my 
fault  that  they  have  not  been  useful.  For  the  happiness  I 
am  indebted  to  you.  Nothing  but  your  partiality  and  kind- 
ness (which  I  could  never  account  for)  brought  me  to 
Richmond.  I  shall  never  cease  to, be  grateful  to  you  for 
taking  me  by  the  hand  as  you  did,  on  leaving  the  Seminary, 
a  green,  wayward,  and,  as  I  now  know,  unpromising 
youth,  and  for  bringing  me  to  a  place  where  I  have  found 
so  many  friends,  and  enjoyed  so  many  years  of  personal 
and  domestic  comfort.  I  esteem  it  one  of  the  greatest 
blessings  of  my  life  that  the  first  years  of  my  ministry  were 
spent  under  your  influence,  and  I  often  feel  ashamed  that 
while  you  were  in  Richmond  and  since  your  removal,  I 
have  made  so  poor  a  return  for  your  kindness  to  me.  I 
still  hope  it  may  be  in  my  power  to  render  you,  or  yours, 
some  service,  though  I  now  know  of  no  way  in  which  I 
can  be  useful  to  you.  The  past  year  has  been  the  most 
prosperous,  so  far  as  my  church  and  school  are  concerned. 
During  the  winter,  I  had  over  a  hundred  pupils,  and  now, 
in  this  warm  weather,  more  than  seventy-five  in  attend- 
ance.   Mr.  L 's  engagement  with  me  will  expire  at  the 

close  of  the  present  session,  but  I  have  induced  my  brother 
William  to  resign  his  professorship  in  the  Ohio  University 
for  the  sake  of  aiding  me  in  my  school  next  year.  I  may 
not  be  able  to  keep  him  long,  nor  do  I  desire  to  do  so,  as  I 
am  told  he  bids  fair  to  take  a  high  stand  as  a  preacher.  I 
received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Van  Zandt  yesterday  with 
regard  to  his  undertaking  the  High  Street  Church,  in 
Petersburg.  Should  he  not  be  taken  from  me,  I  anticipate 
much  advantage  in  having  him  with  me  next  year,  as  he  is 
said  to  be  a  capital  teacher,  and  a  man  of  lovely  spirit.  He 
will  be  here  in  August. 

You  have  heard  of  the  death  of  Mrs.  Robert  Brooke. 

^  From  the  time  of  his  first  visit. 


no  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

She  was,  to  my  taste,  a  lady  of  the  most  agreeable  man- 
ners; so  self-possessed  under  all  circumstances,  with  so 
much  tact,  and  such  a  nice  sense  of  propriety.  Her  piety, 
always  of  a  high  order,  rapidly  matured  during  the  last 
months  of  her  life.  For  weeks  previous  to  her  departure, 
she  seemed  "quite  on  the  verge  of  heaven."  There  was  a 
very  unusual  and  affecting  occurrence  at  her  funeral, 
which  took  place  from  the  First  Church.  Mr.  Moore 
asked  me  to  open  the  services,  and  to  read  a  chapter  of  his 
selection,  which  I  did.  When  I  concluded  he  rose  to  take 
his  text,  but  suddenly  became  overpowered  with  emotion, 
closed  the  Bible  and  sat  down.  He  could  not  regain  his 
composure.  A  large  assembly  was  waiting,  and  at  his 
request,  I  preached  the  sermon,  although  I  had  not  one 
moment  for  premeditation.  I  was  not  embarrassed,  how- 
ever, by  the  unexpected  call,  for  such  an  emergency  always 
steadies  and  animates  me.  I  selected  a  text  from  the  chap- 
ter I  read,  and,  by  a  most  extraordinary  coincidence,  I  took 
the  very  text  (as  I  afterwards  learned)  from  which  he  had 
designed  to  preach. 

Who  will  make  a  good  professor  in  Dr.  Graham's  place 
in  Union  Seminary?  I  am  one  of  the  electors,  and  feel 
much  interested  in  it. 

In  August  Mr.  Hoge  went  with  Mrs.  Hoge  to  Baltimore 
to  meet  his  brother  and  his  children.  He  wrote  Dr.  Plumer 
from  Norfolk : 

Last  night  I  broke  my  good  rule  of  retiring  early.  The 
weather  was  pleasant,  and  William  and  I  had  the  longest 
sort  of  a  talk  as  we  paced  the  upper  deck,  reviewing  the 
various  incidents  in  our  lives  since  we  parted.  He  seems 
to  be  a  noble-hearted  fellow,  generous,  unselfish,  full  of 
sympathy,  and  with  elevated  aims.  It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  see  a  brother  bringing  so  much  bodily  and 
mental  strength  into  the  service  of  the  Lord — energy 
united  with  deep-toned  piety. 

A  little  later,  when  he  thought  some  eflort  was  on  foot  to 
move  his  brother  away,  he  sums  up  the  advantages  of  the 
existing  arrangement: 


In  Full  Service.  hi 

(i)  The  importance  of  sustaining  the  school  and  his 
brother's  success  in  it.  "He  is  the  best  teacher  I  ever  saw, 
and  all  his  classes  respect  and  love  him."  (2)  The  abun- 
dance of  work  there  was  for  both.  (3)  The  career  of 
prosperit}'  now  open  to  the  church,  when,  after  persevering 
and  painful  efforts,  arrangements  had  been  made  for  the 
payment  of  the  entire  church  debt.  (4)  The  advantage 
to  his  brother  of  having  a  home  for  his  little  ones  where  he 
could  be  with  them.  (5)  "William  is  my  only  brother, 
from  whom  I  have  been  separated  since  he  was  a  child. 
We  are  happy  in  being  together,  especially  in  being  asso- 
ciated as  we  are  in  the  church.  I  do  not  admire  the  co- 
pastor  system.^  I  would  not  be  thus  united  with  any  one 
but  a  brother,  nor  with  a  brother  unless  he  were  such  as 
William.  But  zuc  can  always  work  together  in  love  and 
harmony. 

"The  present  state  of  things  seems  all  to  have  been  or- 
dered by  a  kind  providence.  It  has  all  been  brought  about 
very  gradually.  No  one  had  any  idea  of  calling  Brother 
William  when  he  first  came.  By  degrees  the  idea  grew 
upon  the  people,  until  with  unanimous  voice  they  elected 
him,  that  I  might  have  more  time  to  study  and  visit  with- 
out giving  up  my  school,  and  that  they  might  hear  him 
preach  and  have  his  pastoral  attention,  both  of  which  they 
prize.    Let  all  this  alone." 

The  relation  was  indeed  a  happy  one;  happy  in  the  re- 
discovery the  brothers  made  of  each  other;  happy  in  the 
mutual  love  that  sprang  forth  afresh  and  that  grew  until 
death  separated  them;  happy  in  the  fellowship  of  service 
they  enjoyed ;  happiest  of  all  in  the  outpouring  of  the  divine 
blessing  upon  their  labors.  William  Hoge  thus  tells  the 
story  in  a  letter  to  his  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Julia  P.  Ballard : 

Richmond,  Va.,  December  2,  1851. 
My  Dear  Julia  :  I  have  a  message  to  gladden  any  pious 
heart,  but  I  want  to  send  it  where  the  thrill  will  be  richest. 
I  have  hesitated  some  time  between  Aunt  Sallie  and  your- 
self, but  your  beaming  face  rising  before  me  has  decided 
me. 

^  He  changed  his  views  on  this  in  later  life. 


112  Moses  Drury  HoGE. 

The  windows  of  heaven  are  open,  and  a  blessing  of  grace 
descending.  Our  house  particularly  is  blessed.  It  is  a 
place  of  weeping.  Every  girl,  I  think,  is  moved.  Some 
are  in  bitterness.  Some  have  had  their  mourning  turned 
into  joy.  At  least  four  of  our  boarders  trust  they  have 
found  true  peace  in  believing.  For  some  weeks  past  two 
or  three  have  been  tenderly  impressed.  On  last  Friday 
night  I  was  engaged  to  assist  Mr.  Moore  of  the  First 
Church,  at  his  meeting  preparatory  to  the  sacrament.  I 
preached  "  The  Lord's  Hand  is  not  Shortened,"  etc. 
Nearly  all  of  our  girls  attended ;  some  were  awakened. 
Saturday  night  I  preached  again,  "The  Ten  Lepers."  All 
went.  On  Sabbath  I  had  to  preach  twice  in  our  own 
church.  Brother  being  absent  at  Norfolk  to  install  a  pastor. 
I  gave  them  just  what  you  heard  once  when  you  went  with 
me  to  Millfield.  In  the  morning,  "Why  Will  Ye  Die?" 
In  the  afternoon,  "The  Lord  taketh  pleasure  in  those 
that  hope  in  his  mercy."  The  audiences  were  large  and 
much  affected.  Then  came  the  hardest  part  of  my  day's 
work.  Eight  girls  came  to  my  study,  one  after  another, 
for  counsel  and  prayer,  and  while  conversing  or  praying 
with  one,  the  cries  and  prayers  of  others  reached  my  ears. 
On  Monday  I  felt  strong  and  fresh  again.  In  school, 
while  hearing  the  Bible  class,  the  plainest  and  simplest 
words  seemed  to  go  to  the  heart.  The  Spirit  was  there, 
and  many  were  in  tears.  After  school  at  four  o'clock,  be- 
tween sixty  and  seventy  assembled  at  a  prayer-meeting  at 
our  house.  Others  were  melted,  and  my  cousin,  Lizzie 
Hoge,  was  Ulled  with  joy.  I  sent  her  quickly  off  to  my 
study  that  she  might  give  her  first  hours  to  God,  that  her 
opened  eyes  might  see  only  him  who  had  opened  them.  At 
night  I  preached  "  The  Prodigal  Son."  Weeping  eyes 
were  turned  towards  me,  and  at  the  close  another  was  re- 
joicing in  hope.  And  now,  as  I  write  in  school,  in  a  mo- 
ment snatched  from  other  duties,  I  see  one  and  another 
turning  from  their  books  and  burying  their  faces  in  their 
hands  to  hide  their  tears  and  suppress  the  rising  sob.  In- 
quiry meeting  this  afternoon.  I  preach  to-night.  Then 
Brother  will  be  here,  and  the  labor  will  be  divided.  But 
I  am  not  tired.  I  have  preached  very  calmly;  quietly 
talked  much  of  the  time.  But  I  must  close;  I  know  you 
are  glad ;  I  know  you  will  pray  for  us — for  me.  Dearest 
love  to  all.  Sincerely,  W.  J.  Hoge. 


In  Full  Service.  113 

P.  S. — There  is  preaching,  too,  every  night  in  Mr. 
Moore's  church,  and  much  interest  there. 

Just  after  I  came  here,  we  took  a  trip  as  far  as  Danville 
(near  the  borders  of  Carolina).  Brother  and  myself  con- 
ducted a  communion  meeting,  and  had  to  come  away  at 
once.  But  from_  that  day  the  blessed  work  commenced, 
and  I  learn  that  some  seventy  made  profession. 

A  few  days  later  Moses  Hoge  writes  of  the  same  events  to 
Dr.  Plumer: 

You  have  heard  of  the  delightful  season  we  are  enjoying. 
The  interest  commenced  among  my  boarders,  then  ex- 
tended into  the  school,  then  into  the  congregation.  Two 
sermons  which  Brother  William  preached  for  Mr.  Moore 
previous  to  his  communion  were  much  blessed  to  the  young 
people,  who  went  down  with  him  from  my  house,  as  well 
as  to  some  of  Mr.  Moore's  congregation.  We  have  preach- 
ing in  the  lecture-room  of  each  church  every  night.  To- 
night Brother  William  preached  for  Mr.  Moore,  and  I 
preached  to  my  people.  Oh !  could  my  mother  have  only 
seen  her  two  sons  in  the  pulpit.  Could  she  be  in  Rich- 
mond to-night,  and  know  that  both  were  preaching  to 
solemn  audiences,  at  the  same  hour — how  she  would  re- 
joice. But  if  it  would  add  to  her  joy  in  heaven,  she  does 
know  it.  About  twelve  have  professed  a  hope,  in  my  con- 
gregation, and  some  fifteen  are  now  inquiring  the  way  of 
life.  I  trust  it  is  but  the  beginning  of  what  we  shall  see. 
The  first  notes  of  praise  from  the  lips  of  new  converts  give 
us  here  upon  earth  some  preludes  of  heaven. 

The  blessed  fruits  of  this  revival  are  found  to  this  day.  It 
has  been  a  common  experience  to  the  children  of  those  who 
were  associated  in  this  work  to  meet  godly  women  full  of  all 
the  sweet  graces  of  the  Spirit  and  abounding  in  love  and 
good  works,  who  trace  to  this  time  the  beginning  of  their 
Christian  life. 

But  the  relation  could  not  continue.  William  Hoge  had 
come  into  the  ministry  through  too  deep  experiences  to  give 
so  much  of  his  time  to  the  school-room.  He  accepted  a  call 
to  the  new  Westminster  Church  in  Baltimore,  where  he 


114  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

began  his  ministry  July  i,  1852,  and  Moses  Hoge  turned 
over  the  principal  care  of  his  school  to  others. 

That  fall  he  was  elected  Moderator  of  the  Synod  of  Vir- 
ginia— esteemed  in  Virginia  an  honor  only  second  to  the 
moderatorship  of  the  General  Assembly.  He  wrote  Mrs. 
Hoge  (Winchester,  October  22,  1852)  : 

I  think  I  was  never  so  tardy  in  writing  to  you  before,  but 
it  has  happened  on  this  wise.  Immediately  on  my  arrival 
here,  I  was  elected  Moderator.  So  that  I  had  to  be  in  my 
place  early,  and  late,  and  all  day.  This  thing  of  pinning 
a  man  down  to  the  Moderator's  chair  is  not  exactly  the 
thing  to  give  him  rest  and  recreation ;  but  you  know  the 
honor  of  being  Moderator  of  the  Synod  of  Virginia  makes 
the  yoke  easy,  the  burden  light.  The  order  of  every  day 
is  to  first  hurry  through  breakfast,  then  hurry  to  Synod, 
then  hurry  through  morning  business,  then  hurry  through 
dinner,  then  back  to  Synod,  then  a  rush  for  supper,  then 
preaching,  then  Synod  after  preaching,  then  a  rush  to  bed, 
and  so  the  time  has  gone ;  and  this  is  the  first  time  I  have 
had  a  pen  in  my  hand  since  I  came  to  Winchester. 

Mr.  Hoge's  immense  capacity  for  work  has  always  been 
a  mystery  to  his  friends,  especially  as  he  never  had  much 
system  about  it.  In  semi-humorous  vein  he  sums  up  his 
occupations  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Drury  Lacy : 

Richmond,  Va.,  December  3,  1853. 
My  Dear  Uncle:  I  have  got  used  to  being  "a  wonder 
unto  many,"  as  to  how  I  get  through  with  my  multifarious 
duties,  and  I  have  often  been  asked  to  communicate  the 
secret.  I  preach  three  times  a  week  and  attend  one  prayer- 
meeting,  besides  those  constantly  occurring  calls  for  ad- 
dresses before  societies  of  one  sort  and  another.  I  teach 
school,  run  a  team  on  the  street,  write  occasionally  for  the 
papers,  North  and  South ;  I  entertain  a  great  deal  of 
company,  receive  any  number  of  visits  from  country  ac- 
quaintances and  strangers ;  carry  on  as  extensive  a  cor- 
respondence, perhaps,  as  any  minister  in  the  State;  am 
general  commission  merchant  for  friends  living  out  of 
town,  and,  until  lately,  have  officiated  as  negro-hirer  and 


In  Full  Service.  115 

collector,  and  yet  I  am  generally  at  anybody's  service  who 
wants  me  to  visit  the  sick,  take  a  walk,  ride  or  go  fishing. 
I  read  some  poetry,  and  now  and  then  a  novel,  and  visit 
(they  say)  as  much  as  any  pastor  in  Richmond,  but  I 
don't  know  how  I  manage  it.  Perhaps  the  best  explanation 
is  that  I  attempt  many  things  and  do  nothing  well — ^that  I 
am  Joannes  omnium  artinin,  magister  nullius. 

After  all,  the  reason  why  some  men  accomplish  more 
than  others  is  to  be  found  in  the  different  force  of  that 
faculty  denominated  the  will.  A  resolute,  unconquerable 
will  can  cause  even  a  feeble  physical  frame  to  undergo 
toils,  and  perform  wonders  of  endurance  and  action ;  but 
when  a  will  which  ignores  such  a  word  as  impossible  is 
combined  with  a  vigorous  physique,  then  I  will  not  set  any 
limits  to  what  the  proprietor  of  this  happy  combination  of 
powers  can  efifect. 

I  have  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  you  cannot  bear 
them  now,  should  they  be  written  in  such  a  miserable  hand, 
and  I  have  no  time  this  morning  to  add  more.  Venit  hora, 
absque  mora.  Most  truly  yours,  M.  D.  Hoge. 

From  his  youth  it  had  been  Mr.  Hoge's  ardent  desire  to 
travel  abroad.  But  the  financial  straits  of  his  church,  and 
the  consequent  res  oiigustae  domi,  had  made  it  impracti- 
cable. But  in  the  spring  of  1854,  through  the  kindness  of 
his  good  friends,  Mr.  and  Airs.  Webb,  he  was  invited  to  go 
abroad  with  them  as  their  escort.  We  will  not  follow  him 
over  ground  now  so  familiar,  but  one  letter  from  London 
will  suffice  to  show  the  eyes  he  took  with  him,  and  his  delight 
dn  all  he  saw.    He  wrote  Mrs.  Greenleaf  (July  31,  1854)  : 

My  Dear  Sister  :  Would  you  not  have  been  pleased  to 
see  me  drive  from  the  railway  station  to  Morley's  Hotel, 
Trafalgar  Square,  Charing  Cross,  eat  an  immense  dinner 
at  nine  thirty  o'clock  to-night,  then  light  a  cigar,  and 
plunge  into  the  Strand  and  wander  on,  in  a  sort  of  dreamy 
rapture,  until  I  passed  Temple  Bar,  and  then  on  and  on, 
until  I  stood  spell-bound  beneath  the  awful  shadows  of 
St.  Paul's? 

Oh !  I  am  happy  to-night ;  the  dream  of  my  youth,  the 
ardent  wish  of  my  riper  years — alas !  that  I  should  have 


ii6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

to  say  riper  years :  I  want  youth,  youth  forever — is  now 
a  reality.  I  look  down  from  the  window  where  I  write 
upon  a  thousand  flashing  lights  and  rushing  vehicles,  and 
late  as  it  is,  these  lights  and  this  roar  which  smites  my  ear, 
all  assure  me  that  I  am  indeed  in  vast,  heaving,  tumultu- 
ous, interminable  London.    .    .    . 

The  ocean  passage  was  charming.  I  never  saw  such  a 
proportion  of  agreeable  people  in  the  same  number,  and 
yet  among  the  passengers  all,  nearly  all,  nations  were 
represented.  Captain  Nye  said  it  was  his  most  pleasant 
passage. 

Of  course,  it  did  nothing  but  rain  in  Liverpool,  and  I 
saw  but  little  of  it,  but  what  a  sweet  visit  did  I  make  to 
quaint,  quiet,  venera:ble  Chester ;  and  then  the  walks  and 
drives  and  visits  to  old  ruins  I  had  in  Wales ;  and  then 
the  fun  I  had  in  Ireland,  the  gratification  I  had  in  break- 
fasting with  Dr.  Cooke,  the  sorrow  that  I  did  not  find 
McCosh  in  Belfast ;  and  then  the  glorious  morning  sail  up 
the  Clyde  to  Glasgow,  the  visit  to  Bothwell  Bridge  and 
Hamilton  Palace,  the  excursion  to  the  Highlands,  my  walk 
through  Rob  Roy's  country,  my  night  ride  on  horseback 
through  the  Trossachs ;  my  visit  to  Stirling  Castle,  Dal- 
keith Palace,  Newbattle  Abbey,  Hawthornden,  Roslin 
Castle,  Abbotsford,  Melrose,  Dryburgh  Abbey,  and  to 
York  Minster.  No,  these  things  I  cannot  tell  you  about, 
because  I  would  not  know  where  to  begin  and  where  to 
end.  I  could  write  a  little  book  on  each.  Since  my  arrival 
in  London,  I  have  gone  with  the  Webbs,  by  day,  to  see 
what  we  all  want  to  see,  and  must  see  of  course,  such  as  St. 
Paul's,  Westminster,  the  Tower,  the  Galleries;  and  by 
myself  I  have  gone  by  night  to  see  what  /  wanted  to  see ; 
and  when  alone,  how  happy  I  have  been,  you  can,  though 
very  few  others  can,  imagine. 

London  is  light  all  night,  and  many  of  its  most  inter- 
esting places  are  open  until  twelve  o'clock.  Ben  Jonson's 
Tavern,  The  Argyle  Rooms,  Bolt  Court,  Vauxhall,  etc., 
etc. ;  these  I  have  seen,  and  there  are  a  few  more  of  the 
same  sort  yet  on  my  list.  To-day  one  of  my  most  inter- 
esting visits  was  to  St.  Giles'  Church,  Cripplegate.  There 
John  Howe  preached,  and  many  other  Nonconformist 
divines,  during  the  Commonwealth.  I  have  in  my  library 
the  "Morning  Exercises"  of  these  divines  in  six  volumes. 


In  Full  Service.  117 

In  this  church  Ben  Jonson  and  Oliver  Cromwell  were 
married,  and  beneath  its  pavement  John  Milton  is  buried. 
I  stood  over  the  slab  and  recalled  many  scenes  in  his  life, 
and  many  passages  in  his  works,  with  a  delight  they  never 
afforded  me  previously. 

Will  it  be  possible  for  me  to  like  Paris  as  much?  Can  I 
have  a  more  romantic  adventure  than  I  had  the  other 
night  on  Cornhill  ? 

But  what  is  the  use  of  writing  about  London?  I  could 
not  reach  letter  A  in  the  catalogue  of  what  is  to  be  seen  and 
enjoyed. 

To  Dr.  Plumer  he  writes  after  his  return   (March  13, 

1855): 

I  regard  the  five  months  I  spent  abroad  as  five  of  the 
most  pleasant  and  profitable  of  my  life.  I  returned  without 
visiting  many  places  I  was  anxious  to  see,  but  I  ought  to 
be  satisfied  with  a  trip  which  carried  me  to  London,  Edin- 
burgh, Dublin,  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Cologne,  Frankfort, 
Zurich,  Lucerne,  Berne,  Milan,  Genoa,  Turin,  Verona, 
Venice,  Lyons,  and  Paris,  to  say  nothing  of  the  finest 
lakes  and  the  grandest  mountains  in  the  world. 

But,  after  all,  I  returned  more  thankful  than  ever  that  I 
was  born  under  a  republican  government,  and  in  a  Protes- 
tant country.  It  would  be  foolish  not  to  admit  that 
Europe  is  our  superior  in  some  of  the  trappings  and  orna- 
ments of  life,  our  superior  in  architecture,  painting  and 
sculpture  and  music ;  but  in  all  the  great  rational  ends  of 
life — in  virtue,  integrity,  honesty  and  manliness — in  all 
that  really  makes  a  people  great — in  all  that  makes  the 
future  (Europe  has  nothing  but  a  most  dismal  and  tragic 
future  for  ages  to  come) — in  all  that  makes  the  future 
radiant  with  the  animating  prospect  of  a  destiny  more 
glorious  than  ever  allotted  to  any  other  nation — we  are  as 
superior  to  Europe  as  Europe  is  to  us  in  the  mere  frippery 
and  embellishment  of  life.  When  I  first  reached  England, 
I  felt  like  a  stranger  and  a  foreigner ;  but  after  travelling 
two  or  three  months  on  the  Continent,  after  being  watched 
and  guarded  as  if  I  had  been  a  conspirator,  after  being 
stopped  at  every  frontier  and  in  every  town  and  city,  and 
compelled  to  give  an  account  of  who  I  was,  how  old,  my 


ii8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

profession,  where  I  was  born,  where  I  came  from  last,  and 
where  I  was  going  next — when  I  got  back  to  England  and 
found  that  I  was  once  more  under  a  constitutional  free,  and 
not  a  constitutional  despotic  government,  and  in  a  land 
where  the  Protestant  religion  prevailed,  I  stuffed  my  pass- 
port away  down  in  the  bottom  of  my  trunk  and  breathed 
freer  and'  stronger,  and  felt  almost  at  home  again.  And 
ever  since  I  reached  my  own  dear  country,  I  have  been 
singing,  "The  lines  have  fallen  to  me  in  pleasant  places, 
and  I  have  a  goodly  heritage/'  Still  I  want  to  go  abroad 
once  more;  I  want  to  visit  Greece,  Egypt,  and  Palestine, 
and  when  I  make  that  tour  I  want  you  to  go  with  me. 
There  is  a  multitude  in  Richmond  who  remember  you  with 
unchanging  affection ;  but  among  them  all,  none  cherish 
you  with  a  warmer  affection  than  Hoge. 

During  his  absence  in  Europe,  Hampden-Sidney  College 
conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  (June, 

1854)- 

The  following  year  Dr.   Hoge,  having  now  no  school 

on  his  hands,  embarked  on  a  new  enterprise.  The  Watch- 
man, the  organ  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Virginia,  had 
led  a  struggling  existence  for  some  years.  Dr.  Hoge  had  felt 
rnuch  anxiety  about  it,  and  encouraged  the  venerable  editor 
by  contributions  to  its  columns,  and  by  support  under  all 
circumstances.  At  last,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Moore,  he 
purchased  it.  Its  name  was  changed  to  the  Central  Pres- 
byterian, and  it  was  published  under  the  firm  name  of  Moore 
and  Hoge.  It  at  once  became  a  recognized  power  in  the 
country.  In  the  exciting  discussions  that  agitated  the  coun- 
try, it  fearlessly  defended  the  South  against  misrepresenta- 
tion and  slander,  while  its  calm  conservatism  did  much  to 
mould  that  strong  sentiment  in  favor  of  moderation  and 
peace  that  kept  Virginia  true  to  the  Union  as  long  as  union 
was  possible.  In  1859  the  paper  passed  into  the  able  hands 
of  Dr.  William  Brown. 

In  the  fall  of   1856,  Dr.  Hoge,  with  his  brother  Wil- 
liam, visited  the  Synod  of  North  Carolina,  at  Fayetteville,  in 


In  Full  Service.  119 

the  interest  of  Union  Seminary.  His  brother,  after  four 
years  of  joyful  ministry  in  Bahimore,  had  accepted  a  call  to 
the  new  chair  of  New  Testament  Literature  and  Biblical 
Introduction  in  Union  Seminary,  to  which  he  had  been 
elected  without  his  knowledge.  While  he  felt  the  pastorate 
to  be  his  appointed  field  of  usefulness,  he  gladly  availed 
himself  of  this  opportunity  to  broaden  his  foundations,  as  he 
had  pursued  his  theological  education  privately — though 
under  the  able  guidance  of  Dr.  M'Guffey — while  professor 
at  Athens.  Dr.  Moses  Hoge — the  distinction  is  neces- 
sary, for  William  was  also  a  Doctor  now — was  a  direc- 
tor in  the  same  institution,  and  the  tv/o  went  by  appoint- 
ment of  the  Board  to  arouse  a  greater  interest  in  the  Semi- 
nary in  the  Synod  of  North  Carolina.  While  in  Baltimore, 
William  Hoge  had  been  married  to  Virginia  Randolph, 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  Peyton  Harrison,  and  it  is  to  her  that 
the  following  letter  is  addressed  : 

Fayetteville,  N.  C,  November  13,  1856. 
I  must  write  a  word  to-night,  though  it  is  late  and  I 
rode  all  last  night  in  a  stage  so  uncomfortable  that  I  ap- 
plauded your  wisdom  in  not  coming  with  me ;  and  though 
I  have  been  hard  at  it  all  day  without  sleep  or  rest,  I  must 
write  to  tell  you  how  well  and  happy  I  am — happy  because 
I  am  before  so  bright  a  pine-knot  fire  in  such  a  delightful 
place,  because  I  have  just  partaken  of  such  delicious  bits 
of  cold  turkey  and  cake  and  goblets  of  milk  (which  I 
needed)  ;  happy  in  having  my  dear  old  brother  with  me, 
and  having  seen  my  loving  Uncle  Drury ;  happy  in  having 
heard  Moses  make  so  brilliant  a  speech  to-night  before  the 
Synod  in  behalf  of  the  Seminary,  and  because  he  says  }ny 
speech  of  a  solid  hour  was  just  the  thing,  of  peculiar 
felicity,  and  the  best  speaking  he  ever  heard  from  me,  while 
more  than  one  member  of  Synod  came  to  me  after  church 
and  said  we  had  done  more  for  the  Seminary  to-night  than 
ever  was  done  before  in  this  State;  happy  because  of  the 
generous  courtesy  with  which  they  have  given  Moses  next 
Sunday  morning  at  the  communion,  and  me  next  Sunday 
night,  when  Moses  says  I  must  by  all  means  preach 
"  Stephen." 


I20  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

That  visit,  those  speeches,  and  those  sermons  are  remem- 
bered in  North  CaroHna  to  this  day. 

From  these  public  concerns  and  occupations  it  is  necessary 
to  turn  aside  awhile  into  the  quieter  realm  of  Dr.  Hoge's 
home  and  family.  The  birth  of  his  first-born  was  followed 
(February  7,  1847)  by  that  of  a  second  daughter — Mary 
Rochet — the  middle  name  commemorating  Mrs.  Hoge's 
Huguenot  ancestress,  and  (December  17,  1849)  ^Y  ^  third, 
Fanny  Wood.  This  little  lamb  was  early  taken  to  the  arms 
of  the  Good  Shepherd,  at  that  charming  age  when  the  mind 
has  begun  to  open,  while  the  heart  is  still  untouched  by  the 
evil  of  the  world.  Of  this  bereavement  her  father  wrote  to 
Dr.  Plumer  (August  9,  1851)  : 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir:  My  dear  little  Fannie  died 
yesterday  morning,  and  is  to  be  buried  this  afternoon. 
This  is  an  unexpected  stroke.  She  had  an  attack  of 
measles,  but  the  case  was  not  considered  dangerous  until 
within  four  hours  of  her  death,  when  violent  congestion 
came  on,  and  quickly  did  its  work.  She  was  most  tenderly 
beloved  by  Susan  and  myself,  but  we  both  feel  that  God 
is  holy,  and  just  and  good.  I  have  in  this  affliction  a  sweet 
sense  of  his  nearness  and  love.  He  could  not  have  removed 
our  child  with  fewer  aggravating  circumstances.  There 
was  a  prospect  that  the  last  struggle  would  be  sharp  and 
protracted;  but  Susan  and  I  went  up  into  the  study  and 
prayed  that  God  would  give  her  a  gentle  release.  In  His 
pity  he  answered  our  request,  and  gave  her  a  seemingly 
painless  departure.  What  a  change  a  day  has  wrought! 
Evening  before  last,  Fannie  was  sitting  up,  talking  and 
even  trying  to  repeat  some  of  her  little  funny  sayings; 
and  now  she  lies  beside  me — pale,  cold,  still. 

I  would  not  permit  any  one  to  sit  up  with  her  last  night, 
for  I  preferred  to  watch  beside  the  little  coffin  myself,  and 
meditate  and  pray  and  gaze  upon  the  sweet  face  within  it, 
without  any  one  to  disturb  me.  No  change  has  yet  taken 
place  in  her  appearance.  Her  features  are  perfectly  placid, 
and  a  gentle  smile  rests  upon  the  lips.  But  far  more  beau- 
tiful is  the  immortal  part.  Precious,  precious  to  me  now 
are  the  revelations  of  the  gospel.    I  do  not  feel  that  I  have 


In  Full  Service.  121 

lost  my  child,  but  that  she  is  the  only  one  of  the  three  that 
is  safe.  I  wish  to  be  taught  by  this  dispensation.  I  know 
that  you  will  pray  that  it  may  result  in  all  the  benefit  for 
which  it  was  intended.  With  love  to  your  family,  I  re- 
main, Yours  affectionately,  M.  D,  Hoge. 

Another  little  daughter — Susan,^  the  mother's  namesake 
— came  for  a  little  while  to  cheer  their  hearts  here,  and  then 
lift  them  up  to  heaven.  He  himself  was  quite  ill  during  this 
time,  and  the  mingled  sorrow  and  strain  was  beginning  to 
tell  upon  him  severely.  His  brother  came  down  from 
Hampden-Sidney  to  see  him,  and  wrote  his  wife  (April  17, 
1856) : 

The  interruptions  by  calls,  etc.,  are  innumerable,  so  that 
it  is  very  little  time  I  can  secure  for  private  conversation 
with  brother.  He  is  very  busy,  for  he  would  edit  the 
paper  this  week,  and  is  far  from  well.  He  looks  badly — 
wasted,  worn.  He  wears  the  continual  expression  of  care, 
and  an  overburdened  mind  and  heart  and  body.  How  I 
wish  he  could  rest,  but  he  cannot,  or  will  not.  He  has  been 
much  cheered,  though,  by  my  visit.  It  has  revived  old 
times  and  some  merry  associations,  and  given  him  some 
hearty  laughs.  All  this  does  him  good.  He  greatly  ap- 
preciated my  prompt  coming  when  I  heard  of  his  illness, 
nor  was  your  part  of  the  generous  sacrifice  forgotten. 
They,  that  is,  of  course,  Moses  and  Susan,  unite  in  hearty 
thanks  and  love. 

But  a  few  months  later  he  is  writing  to  Mrs.  Hoge  in 
happy  vein,  on  his  birthday  (September  17,  1857)  : 

This  has  been  a  charming  day.  The  sun  shines  bright 
and  warm — too  warm  for  pedestrians — but  the  breeze  is 
fresh  and  strong,  and  in  the  house  the  temperature  is 
delicious. 

I  have  been  trying  to  spend  the  day  profitably,  as  every 
birthday  should  be  spent,  in  renewing  the  remembrances 
of  mercies  enjoyed  and  in  confession  of  privileges  un- 

^  Born  September  7,  1855 ;    died  at  Dr.  Thomas  Hoge's,  in  Halifax, 
.June  13,  1856. 


122  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

improved,  and  sins  committed.  I  have  been  making  good 
resolutions,  too,  but  how  vain  are  these,  unless  grace  en- 
ables us  to  remember  and  to  keep  them.  I  can  truly  say 
that  goodness  and  mercy  have  followed  me  all  the  days  of 
my  life,  and  Mr.  Gretter  himself  has  scarcely  more  reason 
to  consider  himself  "a  miracle  of  mercy  and  a  monument 
of  grace." 

And  in  recounting  blessings  on  a  birthday,  I  will  not 
forget  to  mention  my  wife  as  one  of  my  choicest  and. 
richest,  for  I  have  been  favored  by  a  good  providence  with 
one  who  has  been  the  most  dutiful,  forbearing,  patient  and 
devoted  of  wives,  one  who  has  rendered  me  the  most 
efficient  aid,  both  in  private  life  and  in  public  duties.  I 
think  that  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  more  than  half  of  the- 
favor  and  popularity  I  have  ever  enjoyed.  Nor  in  this- 
catalogue  of  mercies  will  I  omit  to  mention  my  children. 
Bess  and  Mary  are  very  unlike,  but  both  attractive  in  their 
way.  Bess  for  her  good  sense,  prudence  and  unselfish  dis- 
position, and  Mary  for  her  playfulness,  simplicity  and 
candor.  The  children  are  both  great  comforts  to  me,  and 
I  anticipate  great  happiness  from  their  society  when  they 
grow  up,  if  their  lives  are  spared.  And  the  dear  children 
who  are  gone,  they,  too,  are  comforts  to  me,  for  they  are- 
the  occasion  of  many  pleasant  memories  and  delightful 
contemplations,  as  I  think  of  their  present  happiness  and 
eternal  exemption  from  sin  and  sorrow. 

Such  are  my  birthday  reflections,  and  with  tenderest: 
assurance  of  unchanging  love,  I  am, 

Your  devoted  husband,  M.  D.  H. 

The  following  year  his  church  was  again  visited  by  a. 
season  of  spiritual  refreshing,  and  his  brother  came  down 
to  assist  him,  and  wrote  of  it  to  his  wife  (June  23,. 
1858) : 

Tuesday  and  Wednesday  nights  I  preached  to  a  lecture- 
room  full  and  overflowing.  Some  stood  outside  and  some- 
went  away.  Last  night  we  went  to  the  church,  and  had  a 
fine  audience.  Every  morning  we  have  a  prayer-meeting 
at  six-thirty.  Lecture-room  full.  This  morning  Moses 
conducted  the  prayer-meeting,  while  I  met  all  who  wished 
special  instruction  in  religion  in  the  church.     We  did  not 


In  Full  Service.  125 

know  whether  a  dozen  would  attend.    More  than  fifty  were 
there  representing  every  degree  of  interest. 

/  think  I  ought  to  remain.  I  long  to  be  with  you,  but 
this  is  precious  work,  and  Moses  cannot  do  it  alone. 
Twenty-six  joined  last  Sunday  on  examination,  and  many 
are  serious.    Pray  for  me — all  of  you.  W.  J.  H. 

It  was  the  last  work  of  the  kind  they  were  to  do  together 
for  some  time,  as  the  next  year  his  brother  went  to  New 
York  as  colleague  to  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring  in  the  Brick 
Church.  Of  this  and  other  matters  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Greenleaf  (May  2,  1859)  : 

I  am  doubly  your  debtor  since  your  last  kind  letter  came 
to  remind  me  of  a  former  obligation.  But  if  a  letter  brings 
pleasure  with  it,  how  much  greater  the  joy  when  one  can 
grasp  the  hand  of  the  writer.  The  8th  of  May  will  soon  be 
here,  and  you  know  I  would  not  pass  through  New  Bruns- 
wick without  stopping,  if  you  were  there.  Moreover,  I 
promise  to  spend  the  Sunday,  after  my  performance  in  the 
Academy  of  Music,  with  you,  if  you  will  be  at  home. 
But  (what  a  rascally  little  word  that  is!) — but  if  I  should 
not  get  to  New  York  this  month,  I  cannot  shake  hands 
with  you,  and  if  I  do  not  appear  in  the  Academy  of 
Music,  I  cannot  spend  the  following  Sunday  in  New 
Brunswick. 

Now  the  fact  is,  I  have  declined  the  invitation  to  preach 
in  the  Academy  of  Music ;  and  perhaps  I  am  the  first  one 
who  has  bid  that  cup  of  honor  pass  from  him.  So  you  see 
that  my  ambition,  if  I  ever  had  any,  droops  on  tired  wings. 
I  had  two  engagements  which  stood  in  the  way  of  being 
in  New  York  on  the  8th  of  May,  and  though  on  some 
accounts  I  would  have  liked  to  have  taken  my  turn  at  the 
Academy,  so  far  as  that  was  concerned,  it  was  not  much 
of  a  self-denial  to  decline  going.  I  suppose  you  did  not  go 
over  to  hear  Dr.  Plumer,  as  you  said  nothing  about  it. 
The  Observer  gave  a  graphic  account  of  the  man  and  his 
manner,  but  said  less  than  usual  about  the  sermon. 

The  Hoge  stock  seems  to  be  a  little  above  par  in  New 
York  of  late.  Some  of  my  friends  there  insist  that 
Brothers  William  and  Moses  must  not  be  separated.  I 
was  quite  complimented  to  be  asked  to  succeed  a  man  like 


124  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Dr.  Bethune,  but  it  would  take  a  great  deal  to  induce  me 
to  leave  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

Richmond  is  out  in  its  most  charming  spring  fashion. 
I  neved  saw  it  looking  so  pretty.  We  are  certainly  happy 
here ;  what  more  could  we  expect  elsewhere !  My  church 
was  never  in  so  flourishing  a  condition.  Our  gain  in  mem- 
bership last  year  was  sixty-five.  Since  Roger  Martin 
became  an  elder  he  is  almost  as  efficient  as  his  noble  father. 
Instead  of  the  fathers  shall  be  the  children. 

I  want  to  be  remembered  to  and  by  the  "  Good  Shep- 
herd." Please  say  a  kind  word  to  Dr.  Davidson  for  me, 
also  to  your  brother  Edward  when  you  see  him.  Let  your 
father  know  that  I  cherish  for  him  the  warmest  regard. 
I  want  you  to  become  acquainted  with  Brother  William's 
wife.  She  was  very  happy  at  the  Seminary,  but  I  think 
she  will  like  New  York.  Get  well  as  fast  as  you  can,  and 
put  a  cheerful  courage  on,  and  let  "time  but  the  impression 
deeper  make"  of  any  regard  you  have  for  your  affectionate 
Virginia  brother,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

The  sermons  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  referred  to,  were 
an  enterprise  of  certain  philanthropic  Christian  men,  v^ho 
sought  to  reach  the  non-church-going  masses  of  New  York, 
by  bringing  eminent  ministers  from  all  parts  of  the  country 
to  preach  in  the  Academy  of  Music.  When  his  brother 
preached  in  this  series  the  audience  numbered  five  thousand, 
which  was  then  said  to  be  the  largest  congregation  that  ever 
assembled  within  walls  to  hear  the  gospel  in  this  country. 
In  consequence  of  this  sermon  came  calls  to  the  Collegiate 
Reformed  (Dutch)  Church,  which  he  declined,  and  to  the 
Brick  Church,  which  he  accepted.  The  church  to  which 
Dr.  Moses  Hoge  was  called  was  the  "  Reformed  Dutch 
Church  on  the  Heights,"  Brooklyn,  to  which  the  eminent 
Dr.  Bethune  had  ministered  for  eleven  years,  but  which 
he  had  just  resigned  to  go  abroad  for  his  health. 

Of  a  visit  which  he  did  make  to  New  York  shortly  after 
he  wrote  Mrs.  Greenleaf  (September  lo,  1859)  : 

I  came  unexpectedly  to  the  city  last  Saturday  night.  I 
could  not  stop  in  New  Brunswick,  because  I  did  not  know 


In  Full  Service.  125 

that  I  should  have  more  than  one  Sabbath  before  my 
return,  and  I  wished  to  see  and  hear  Brother  WilHam  in 
his  new  church, 

I  stopped  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  and  did  not  intend 
to  let  William  know  that  I  was  in  the  city  until  after  the 
evening  service,  intending  to  hear  Thornwell  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  then  go  to  the  Brick  Church  at  the  second  service ; 
but  you  know  my  luck  at  meeting  people.  Sunday  morn- 
ing I  walked  out  of  my  hotel,  and  of  course  ran  plump  up 
against  the  inevitable  William.  I  promptly  declined  his 
invitation  to  preach  for  him  in  the  afternoon,  and  went 
and  heard  Thornwell  in  the  morning. 

But  during  the  intermission,  William  came  to  the  hotel, 
really  too  sick  to  preach  (the  first  tinie  since  his  removal 
here),  and  I,  of  course,  consented  to  take  his  place  under 
these  circumstances.  I  have  been  extremely  busy  all 
through  the  week,  having  to  find  a  French  teacher  for  a 
friend  who  is  going  to  open  a  female  school  under  my 
supervision  in  Richmond,  and  buy  a  philosophical  appa- 
ratus among  other  commissions.  I  have  not  had  time  to 
call  on  any  of  my  friends.  But  for  these  engagements,  I 
would  have  written  and  asked  you  if  you  could  join  me 
here.  It  was  not  possible,  however,  as  I  could  not  have 
enjoyed  your  company.  I  have  seen  very  little  of  Brother 
William.  He  moves  into  his  house,  258  Lexington  avenue 
(to  which  I  have  had  my  letters  directed)  to-day.  My 
friend,  McClellan,  came  and  took  me  away  from  the  hotel, 
and  I  am  always  happy  with  him,  as  he  and  his  sisters 
entertain  me  just  according  to  my  mind. 

Since  I  commenced  this  note,  Dr.  Spring  called  to  ask 
me  to  preach  for  him  to-morrow  morning.  I  had  to 
decline,  being  engaged  to  Thompson,  of  Grand  Street 
Church.  I  have  also  declined  preaching  in  the  Cooper 
Institute,  and  for  Dr.  Bethune's  people  to-morrow  night 
(what  a  declining  man  I  am!).  Tuesday  I  have  set  apart 
for  Brooklyn  visits.  There  are  four  or  five  people  there 
I  must  see.  If  you  could  come  over  conveniently,  I  could 
spend  Tuesday  night  at  the  "  Shepherd's." 

But  all  other  matters  were  soon  overshadowed  by  an  event 
that  filled  him  and  his  friends  with  joy — the  birth  of  his  first 
son,  October  20,  1859. 


126  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

His  brother  wrote  (October  26th)  : 

Allow  me — allow  my  wife,  allow  Lacy  and  Addison  and 
every  member  of  my  family — to  congratulate  you  on  the 
birth  of  a  son!  At  last!  Heralded,  too,  by  four  sisters. 
Perhaps  he  will  be  the  "coming  man"  people  profess  to  be 
looking  for  so  diligently  nowadays.  I  wish  I  could  see 
him — the  young  Jeshurun ;  doubtless  he  "kicks"  enough. 
I  wish  I  could  see  old  Brother  Gretter's  paroxysms  of 
loving  laughter  and  tears,  and  Brother  Paine's  ebullitions 
of  emotion,  and  the  Second  Church  generally  in  its  ecstasy. 
I  suppose  he  will  be  elected  your  colleague  in  the  pastorate 
at  once.  He  could  at  least  begin  by  doing  the  typograph- 
ical error  part  of  the  Central ;  put  him  among  the  types, 
and  see  how  long  it  would  take  him  to  knock  everything 
into  "pi." 

We  have  imagined  that  possibly  Bess  and  Mary  some- 
times make  a  little  fuss  over  him,  and  I  can  see  the  grateful 
Dame  Susan's  loving  eyes  drinking  him  in  with  a  sense 
of  soft,  unspeakable  luxury.  You  are  a  little  harder  to 
imagine,  except  in  the  teasing  and  fun-making  department. 
And  yet  I  reckon  you  have  many  solemn  thoughts  of 
mingled  joy,  tenderness  and  anxiety.  A  little  boy's  birth 
may  well  awaken  serious  thoughts.  Oh !  if  you  could  but 
look  forward  and  see  him  an  able  and  faithful  minister  of 
the  gospel,  what  years  of  painful  solicitude  and  fluctuating 
apprehension  and  hope  would  be  prevented.  But  this  may 
not  be !  These  are  part  of  the  discipline  needful  for  the 
parent,  and  of  the  means  by  which  the  child  is  brought  to 
the  desired  ends.  And  how  precious  now  the  provisions 
of  the  covenant  of  grace.  How  mercifully  have  they 
wrought  in  our  case.  We  have  often  spoken  of  the  un- 
utterable joy  it  would  have  given  our  dear  mother,  could 
she  have  known  the  blessed  stations  and  work  on  earth, 
that  grace  had  in  store  for  us.  Let  us  emulate  her  faith 
and  her  faithfulness,  her  patient  strivings  and  self-sacrifice 
for  us. 

I  am  anxious  to  learn  the  name  of  the  little  boy,  how 
he  thrives,  and  how  his  mother  is.  Give  her  a  great 
deal  of  love  from  us  both.  May  God  bless  her  and  this 
dear  child,  and  spare  him  for  great  usefulness,  and  her 
to  see  it. 


In  Full  Service.  127 

To    Mrs.    Greenleaf,    Dr.    Hoge    writes    of    the    same 
event : 

I  could  not  have  believed  that  twelve  hours  would  pass 
before  I  replied  to  one  of  the  best  and  most  welcome 
letters  I  ever  received  from  you ;  but  now  the  days  are  but 
hours  to  me,  and  the  weeks  have  contracted  to  days.  All 
my  time  is  occupied,  and  so  I  fail  to  execute  my  most 
cherished  plans  and  purposes.  I  keep  on  intending  to  do 
what  I  wish,  but  what  lies  out  of  the  orbit  of  necessary 
duty  is  seldom  accomplished.  When  you  were  with  me, 
you  sometimes  saw  me  busy,  but  never  so  busy  as  I  am 
now. 

I  have  had  a  good  deal  to  tell  you,  too.  Every  day  since 
our  little  boy  was  born,  I  wanted  to  say  something  about 
him  to  you.  He  is  a  noble  looking  little  fellow,  though 
only  two  weeks  old,  with  a  large  head  and  clear,  bold  eyes. 
Bess  and  Mary  are  in  ecstasies  about  their  "little  brother," 
a  new  and  sweet  phrase  to  them.  The  important  matter 
of  giving  him  a  name  is  not  yet  attended  to.  "Of  course, 
he  must  be  called  Moses  Drury,"  says  nearly  every  one. 
This  evening  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Ewell.  "You 
cannot  hesitate,"  he  says,  "about  a  name.  Call  him  Moses 
D.,  and  nothing  else."  Yet  I  do  hesitate.  I  do  not  like 
the  custom  of  continuing  the  same  name  in  a  family. 
Moreover,  every  one  should  have  his  own  name,  and  as  in 
our  family  we  are  all  going  to  be  historic  characters,  if  we 
continue  to  bear  the  same  name,  we  will  confuse  the  Muse, 
and  in  making  up  her  annals  she  will  constantly  be  asking 
"which  Moses?"  My  first  thought  was  Parsons  Green- 
leaf.  Susan  interposes  what  has  become  to  her  a  weighty 
objection — the  number  who  have  borne  it  for  a  short  time 
and  then  passed  away.  On  no  other  ground  would  Susan 
object  to  what  would  be  my  choice.  Then  the  name  of  my 
brother  has  been  suggested.  But  that  does  not  suit  me 
for  the  reason  already  given ;  and  as  to  my  own  name,  I 
hold  Moses  in  something  like  detestation.  Instead  of 
getting  my  associations  with  it,  as  I  should  have  done, 
from  the  Pentateuch,  I  derived  them  from  the  Vicar  of 
Wakefield;  not  the  grand  old  Moses  who  first  wore  the 
name,  but  the  green  young  Moses  who  sold  the  colt  for  a 
pair  of  spectacles. 


128  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

It  has  been  proposed  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  two» 
churches  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  nominations,  dis- 
cussing the  subject,  and  deciding  it  by  vote!  Dr.  Moore- 
says  it  will  be  nearly  unanimous  in  favor  of  "Moses  D," 
I  am  glad  I  have  at  least  a  veto  power. 

The  final  decision  was  Alexander  Lacy,  thus  uniting  the 
names  of  Archibald  Alexander,  Drury  Lacy  and  Moses 
Hoge — the  three  great  preachers  so  intimately  associated  at 
Hampden-Sidney.  And  just  here  comes  in  an  incident  that 
revived  some  of  those  memories  of  the  past  v^hich  he  sought 
to  perpetuate  in  the  name  of  his  son. 

To  Mrs.  Greenleaf  he  wrote  (April  24,  i860)  from  Co- 
lumbus, Ohio : 

Having  promised  to  make  an  address  to  the  students  of 
the  Western  Theological  Seminary,  when  I  got  to  Pitts- 
burg, I  felt  that  I  ought  not  to  return  home  without  first 
making  a  visit  to  my  venerable  uncle,  in  this  place.  I 
am  now  glad  I  came,  as  his  children  assure  me  that  he  was- 
very  much  touched  and  deeply  gratified  at  my  coming, 
having  now  arrived  at  that  time  of  life  when  he  is  affected 
by  such  marks  of  respect  and  affection.  He  never  was 
demonstrative,  but  now  his  nerves  are  weaker,  or  his 
heart  is  tenderer,  than  formerly,  and  his  emotional  nature 
reveals  itself  in  a  way  new  to  me.  He  treats  me  as  if  I  had 
been  a  long-absent  son,  returned  for  a  short  visit,  to  be 
repeated  no  more. 

This  morning  I  am  going  to  Cincinnati,  and  from  thence 
to  Athens,  and  pay  probably  my  last  visit  to  the  place 
where  a  portion  of  my  childhood  was  spent,  and  where 
my  father  is  buried.  I  have  a  yearning  to  see  the  place 
again,  and  never  but  once. 

Changes  were  coming  rapidly  now,  as  if  before  the  great 
new  future,  so  full  of  portent,  that  was  impending,  all  old 
associations  were  to  be  blotted  out.  First  his  wife's  home 
in  Prince  Edward  was  broken  up,  and  then  it  became  neces- 
sary for  them  to  leave  the  house  they  had  occupied  for  twelve 
years  in  Richmond.  Of  both  events  he  writes  Mrs.  Green- 
leaf: 


In  Full  Service. 


129 


July  31,  i860. 

After  a  long  season  of  anxiety  and  toil ;  visits  to  the 
sick  and  visits  to  the  dying  and  bereaved,  I  broke  away 
from  other  engagements  on  last  Saturday  morning  and 
came  to  the  country,  where,  after  preaching  one  sermon 
at  college  on  Sunday,  I  have  been  enjoying  the  rare  ex- 
perience of  absolute  rest.  The  season  is  '  soon  to  end, 
however,  for  after  taking  my  family  to  the  mountains 
to-morrow,  I  have  to  return  to  Richmond  to  meet  an  en- 
gagement on  Friday  evening  of  this  week.  .  .  .  We 
will  set  off  from  Poplar  Hill  with  quite  a  cavalcade  to 
Farmville,  where  we  take  the  cars.  Susan,  Bess,  Mary, 
Lacy  and  Bridget,  the  nurse,  will  sufficiently  fill  one  car- 
riage; then  will  follow,  a  baggage  wagon,  drawn  by  two 
mules,  containing  the  trunks,  etc.,  and  Lacy's  goat  in  a 
cage,  and  then  I  will  bring  up  the  rear  on  horseback. 

It  will  be  our  final  exodus  from  Poplar  Hill.  Mr.  Wood 
having  purchased  a  plantation  on  the  Brazos,  in  Texas,  sold 
this  place  last  week  to  a  gentleman  of  Nottoway  (Colonel 
Knight)  for  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars.  Of  course,  he 
takes  all  his  negroes  (thirty-five)  with  him.  Susan  is 
much  distressed  at  the  sale  of  her  dear  old  home.  It  has 
been  in  the  family  for  one  hundred  and  forty  years.  She 
and  Mr.  Wood's  wife  go  off,  I  believe,  and  take  a  little 
private  cry  about  once  a  day. 

Richmond,  Va.,  September  10,  i860. 
To-day  we  leave  our  old  house  finally  and  forever,  but 
before  we  go  I  cannot  refrain  from  sending  you  "a  fare- 
well" from  the  place  where  "we  have  been  happy  together," 
and  which  was,  for  a  time,  your  home  as  well  as  mine. 
My  local  attachments  are  strong,  and  certainly  I  have 
reason  to  remember  this  place.  Here  we  have  lived  nearly 
twelve  years,  here  dear  little  Fanny  and  Susy  were  born, 
and  from  the  same  chamber  were  carried  to  their  graves. 
Here  I  have  had  important  relations  with  many  persons, 
with  the  young  ladies  who  were  members  of  my  family, 
and  a  large  proportion  of  whom  became  members  of  my 
church  (more  than  twenty  during  one  session ) .  Here  good 
Mr.  Martin  spent  some  of  his  most  happy  and  useful  hours, 
during  a  revival,  when  we  held  prayer  and  inquiry  meet- 
ings in  the  parlor,  and  when  three  of  his  children  became 
pious.    But  I  cannot  do  more  than  begin  to  tell  you  of  the 


130  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

associations — pleasant  generally,  mournful  occasionally — 
that  I  have  with  this  house.  This  morning  at  family 
prayers  I  tried  earnestly  to  invoke  God's  blessing  upon 
all  who  had  ever  lived  with  me  at  this  place,  whether  as 
teachers,  pupils,  or  servants.    .    .    . 

I  feel  very  unsettled;  the  committee  of  the  General 
Assembly's  church  (Metropolitan)  in  Washington  have 
unanimously  elected  me  to  become  pastor  (the  appointment 
rests  with  them),  and  I  would  accept  were  there  not  some 
things  connected  with  the  inauguration  of  the  enterprise 
which  I  do  not  like.  But  under  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  I  think  I  will  decline,  probably  this  week.  The 
whole  matter  is  to  be  kept  secret  until  my  decision  is 
made.  If  I  decline,  it  will  not  be  known  that  I  have  been 
invited.  It  is  a  strange  providence  that  keeps  me  in  Vir- 
ginia so  long,  when  I  am  one  of  the  most  restless  of  mor- 
tals, and  love  change  for  its  own  sake. 

Such  w^as  the  tenacity  w^ith  which  Dr.  Hoge  always 
kept  a  secret  that  it  is  probable  many  of  those  nearest  to  him 
know  of  this  important  call  for  the  first  time  from  these 
pages.  Besides  the  calls  to  Brooklyn  and  Washington,  and 
a  number  of  other  overtures  that  he  checked  in  their  in- 
cipiency,  he  was  during  this  period  offered  the  presidency  of 
Hampden-Sidney  College  in  1856,  and  of  Davidson  College, 
North  Carolina,  in  i860.  Each  call  he  declined  on  its  merits, 
and  not  from  a  settled  determination  to  remain  in  Richmond. 
That  came  later :  when  he  had  attained  there  a  position  that 
was  unique. 

The  two  following  letters  from  his  brother  will  suitably 
close  this  chapter : 

A  happy  New  Year  to  you,  my  dear  brother.  To  you 
and  all  yours — "wife,  children  and  friends";  to  your 
church  and  our  distracted  country;  a  year  happy,  blessed, 
fruitful ;  a  year  of  grace,  mercy,  and  peace,  from  God  our 
Father,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Let  me  congratulate  you  on  the  new  leisure  you  are 
about  to  enjoy,  with  nothing  to  do  but  be  pastor  of  a  city 
church.  You  have  not  known  such  a  luxury  for  years. 
How  will  you  dispose  of  your  vacant  hours?  save  your- 


In  Full  Service.  131 

self  from  ennui  and  rust?  how  keep  out  of  mischief? 
What !  no  paper  ?  no  school  ?  Only  three  sermons  a  week, 
with  pastoral  visiting,  funerals,  marriages,  correspondence 
and  the  duties  of  hospitality  ?    A  perfect  sinecure — 

"Otium  cum  dignitate." 

And  who,  my  dear  brother,  shall  deny  your  right  to  a 
little  rest?  Who  shall  begrudge  you  either  your  laurels 
or  your  leisure  ?  A  man  at  your  time  of  life,  having  spent 
his  youth  and  the  prime  of  his  manhood  in  unusual  toils, 
and  having  advanced  some  months  into  his  forty-third 
year,  may  well  look  for  the  calm  shades  and  mellower 
fruits  which  we  naturally  associate  with  that  mature  period 
of  existence ! 

If  your  old  doctrine  is  true,  "the  more  labor  the  more 
leisure,"  I  fear  I  shall  not  get  so  many  nor  so  long  letters 
any  more.  Idleness  may  benumb  your  right  hand,  and 
clog  your  nimble  pen  with  rust.    Do  not  let  it  be  so,  pray. 

Let  me  lay  aside  all  joking,  and  though  a  younger 
brother,  say  a  word  of  sober  counsel. 

Prepare  with  much  labor,  both  of  reading  and  writing, 
a  stock  of  rich  doctrinal  sermons/  not  so  much  for  your 
own  people  (however  important  that  may  be)  as  for 
preaching  away  from  home.^  Pardon  the  freedom  I  am 
going  to  use.  On  people  who  already  knew  and  admired 
you,  your  preaching  in  New  York  left  just  the  impression 
which  generally  follows  it  in  Virginia,  but  with  the  ex- 
-ception  of  your  able  and  elaborate  sermon  on  the  glory  of 
the  Presb}'terian  Church,  I  fear  the  sermons  you  preached 
here  did  not  do  you  full  justice.  Your  other  discourses 
were  clear,  bright,  popular  in  their  cast,  and  where  you 
are  well  known  would  be  very  impressive;  but  somehow, 
though  my  testimony  has  only  negative  foundation  (or 
nearly  so),  they  did  not  take  a  strong  hold  on  the  people. 
Dr.  N.  L.  Rice  was  lately  here.  He  has  not  such  advan- 
tages of  voice  and  elocution  as  you  have,  but  he  carried 
the  people  before  him  as  the  wind  carries  the  cloud.  No 
doubt  some  could  be  found  who  did  not  like  him,  for  my 
full  persuasion  is,  that  no  man  ever  preached  so  meanly  as 
to  have  no  admirers,  and  none  ever  preached  so  well  as  to 
please  everybody.     But  I  felt  immediately  that  he  made 

^  Underscored  in  pencil  by  M.  D.  H. 


132  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

a  powerful,  delightful,  permanent  impression.  And  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  effect  was  mainly  owing  to  the  scrip- 
tural richness,  the  doctrinal  compactness  and  weight  of 
his  discourses.  My  people  heard  two  from  him;  I  but 
one,  and  that  in  the  lecture-room.  Then  he  preached  on 
the  text,  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature." 
I  never  heard  old  Dr.  Alexander,  but  I  felt  that  this  must 
be  like  his  richest  experimental  sermons.  When  I  did  not 
hear  him  he  preached  on  Justification,  "Who  shall  lay 
anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect,"  etc.  The  effect 
was  grand.  I  am  sure  many  people  will  remember  it  to 
their  dying  day.  Some  were  filled  with  enthusiasm.  As 
far  as  I  can  learn,  the  same  effect  was  produced  on  Dr. 
Alexander's  people.  They  would  have  called  him,  but  for 
the  known  impossibility  of  removing  him  so  far  from 
Chicago.  Some  persons,  like  Dr.  Spring,  could  see  that 
no  man  could  preach  constantly  that  way  to  the  same  peo- 
ple. He  put  so  much  rich  truth  in  every  sermon  that  to 
repeat  himself  would  be  a  necessity.  But  I  am  not  speak- 
ing of  what  may  be  prudent  for  a  pastor  in  the  regular 
duties  of  the  pulpit.  The  people  heard  him  gladly  and 
were  profited,  and  his  influence  for  good  was  greatly 
enlarged. 

This  is  one  thing  I  have  been  hoping  you  would  do,  in 
this,  almost  the  first  year  in  which  you  could  give  yourself 
fairly  to  the  simple  work  of  the  ministry,  that  you  would 
look  over  your  great  stock  of  written  sermons,  select  a 
few  on  the  grandest  doctrinal  themes,  enlarge  the  plan, 
condense  the  matter,  pile  up  the  argument,  studying  the 
best  things  of  the  greatest  divines,  and  working  for  weeks 
on  each  subject.  You  have  stock  enough,  time  enough, 
and  experience  enough,  now,  to  enable  you  to  do  this  to 
great  advantage. 

The  marks  upon  this  letter  show  that  good  heed  was  taken 
to  this  word  of  loving,  brotherly  counsel.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  for  a  time  Dr.  Hoge's  growth  as  a  preacher 
suffered  from  the  multifarious  concerns  that  absorbed  his 
time.  Popular,  his  preaching  always  was;  powerful,  it 
often  was ;  but  its  richness  and  fulness,  as  we  have  known 
it,  were  still  in  the  future.     God  has  his  own  plan  for  his 


In  Full  Service.  133 

servants.     William  Hoge  was  given  opportunity  to  devote 

himself  exclusively  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  from  the  first, 

and  matured  early,  for  his  time  was  short.    To  Moses  Hoge 

came  many  cares  and  distractions  that  prevented  study  and 

retarded  growth.     But  God  gave  him  time,  and  his  richest 

fruition  was  after  his  brother's  course  was  finished. 

But  the  time  of  leisure  was  not  yet.    Just  before  him  was 

the  shock  and  whirl  and  turmoil  of  the  war.     But  before 

plunging  into  this  subject  let  us  close  the  chapter  with  a  note 

of  peace : 

New  York,  March  6,  1861. 

My  Dear  Brother:  When  you  wrote  to  us  that  God 
had  blessed  you  with  another  little  boy,^  Virginia  would 
have  me  sit  down  to  welcome  the  dear  child  at  once.  But 
you  still  intimated  that  you  were  about  to  write  me  "a.  real 
letter,"  and  I  was  rather  afraid  to  get  so  far  ahead  of  you, 
lest  you  should  be  discouraged  and  not  pluck  up  again  this 
year.  I  looked  for  a  fuller  account  of  the  lad,  in  a  few 
days,  and  for  tidings  from  Susan.  But  no  word  has  come, 
and  I  can  wait  no  longer.  For,  meanwhile,  I  have  inciden- 
tally heard  that  my  dear  sister  has  been  very  sick,  and  I 
am  anxious  to  learn  how  it  is  with  her,  and  whether  it  is 
"well  with  the  child,"  and  with  you  also,  my  dear  brother. 
Let  me  know  as  soon  as  you  can,  that  I  may  rejoice  with 
you  if  you  rejoice,  or  weep  with  you  if  God  has  made  you 
weep.  May  our  God  be  with  you  and  all  yours,  blessing 
and  comforting,  and,  through  every  change,  enriching  you 
with  all  grace  and  peace. 

We  are  well,  and  all  things  go  with  us  as  usual.  The 
lines  fall  to  us  in  pleasant  places,  and  we  have  a  goodly 
heritage.  My  hands  and  heart  and  head  and  voice  are  full 
of  work,  and  it  is  a  great  and  blessed  work  for  our  Saviour 
and  King.    Oh  !  for  grace  to  do  it  better ! 

All  unite  with  me  in  expressions  of  affection  and  sym- 
pathy both  in  your  joys  and  griefs. 

Ever  your  loving  brother,  W.  J.  Hoge. 

^  Moses  Drury,  born  February  2,  i86l. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
At  the  Confederate  Capital. 

1861  —  1862. 

"Maywe  not  say,  moreover,  while  so  many  of  our  late  Heroes  have  worked! 
rather  as  revolutionary  men,  that  nevertheless  every  Great  Man,  every  genuine 
man,  is  by  the  nature  of  him  a  son  of  Order,  not  of  Disorder?  It  is  a  tragical 
position  for  a  true  man  to  work  in  revolutions.  He  seems  an  anarchist ;  and  in- 
deed a  painful  element  of  anarchy  does  encumber  him  at  every  step, — him  to 
whose  whole  soul  anarchy  is  hostile,  hateful." — Carlyle. 

IT  is  no  part  of  the  purpose  of  these  pages  to  recite  those 
facts  or  to  discuss  those  questions  that  belong  to  history ; 
but  Dr.  Hoge's  relation  to  the  Confederacy  was  too  con- 
spicuous, and  his  identification  with  the  Confederate  cause 
too  complete,  for  any  biography  to  do  justice  to  his  memory 
that  did  not  present  his  views  and  convictions  on  those  great 
questions  that  had  so  long  agitated  the  public  mind,  and  at 
length  rent  the  country  in  twain  in  one  of  the  bloodiest  wars 
of  history. 

And  the  time  has  surely  come  when  men  should  be  able  to 
look  calmly  into  the  causes  of  that  war,  and  do  justice  to 
the  principles  and  motives  that  controlled  the  minds  and 
actions  of  those  on  both  sides  of  the  great  conflict.  No 
thoughtful  man  in  the  South  now  fails  to  recognize  the 
moral  earnestness  of  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  agitation  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  nor  the  high  principles  that  ani- 
mated those  who  sprang  to  arms  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union.  But  they  expect  a  judgment  as  fair  for  those  who, 
with  equal  sincerity  and  at  greater  sacrifice,  took  arms  for  the 
preservation  of  constitutional  liberty,  as  they  understood  it, 
and  to  repel  the  armed  invasion  of  those  commonwealths 
about  whose  names  clustered  patriotic  memories  older 
than  the  Union  itself.  The  late  Hon.  John  Randolph 
Tucker,  at  the  Yale  Alumni  dinner  in  1887,  P^"^^  the  whole 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  135 

matter  in  a  nutshell :  "The  North  fought  for  a  great  political 
idea — the  idea  of  Union;  the  South  fought  for  another 
great  political  idea — the  idea  of  local  self-government.  Pre- 
serve the  two  and  the  war  will  not  have  been  fought  in 
vain." 

With  the  relative  degree  of  praise  or  blame  attaching  to 
the  political  leaders  on  either  side,  we  are  not  here  concerned. 
The  question  that  presents  itself  to  us  is  the  attitude  of  the 
enlightened,  conservative,  Christian  men  of  the  South,  the 
class  of  men  of  which  Dr.  Hoge  stood  forth  as  a  type  and 
a  leader.  What  did  he,  and  such  as  he,  think  of  slavery,  of 
the  Union,  of  secession  ? 

The  fact  that  slavery  was  the  occasion  of  those  discussions 
that  brought  on  the  war,  has  led  to  the  superficial  inference 
that  the  war  was  fought  on  the  southern  side  to  conserve  the 
institution  of  slavery.  However  powerful  this  consideration 
may  have  been  in  controlling  the  actions  of  politicians,  this 
conclusion  ignores  the  large  body  of  anti-slavery  sentiment 
that  had  always  existed  in  the  South,  and  the  burden  with 
which  the  evils  of  slavery  rested  upon  the  hearts  and  con- 
sciences of  its  enlightened  Christian  people.  One  of  the  few 
extant  letters  from  the  elder  Dr.  Moses  Hoge  (1819)  is 
concerned  with  his  efforts  to  unite  a  husband  and  wife  be- 
longing to  different  masters.  The  owner  of  "Frank"  was 
unwilling  to  hire  him  to  the  owner  of  "Celia" — for  some 
grudge — but  agreed  to  hire  him  to  Dr.  Hoge,  with  per- 
mission to  him  to  place  him  where  he  pleased.  The  letter 
goes  on  to  deplore  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  subject  to  such 
separations,  to  predict  the  judgment  of  heaven  upon  the  land 
if  such  injustice  continued,  but  to  express  the  hope  that 
there  were  signs  of  improvement,  and  of  greater  interest  in 
their  spirituah  welfare.  In  1814  his  son,  James  Hoge,  re- 
moved to  Ohio  because  of  his  objections  to  slavery.  On  the 
way  thither  he  spent  a  night  with  Dr.  Conrad  Speece,  and 
they  fell  into  a  discussion  of  the  question.  Dr.  Speece 
asked  him  what  he  would  do  with  the  slaves,   if   freed. 


136  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

"Send  them  back  to  Africa  if  they  cannot  be  retained  among 
us  as  free  laborers."  Dr.  Speece  was  taken  with  the  idea 
and  wrote  about  it.  Dr.  Hoge  never  claimed  originality 
for  it,  as  he  had  seen  what  Dr.  Hopkins,  of  Rhode  Island, 
had  written  on  the  subject.  But  it  was  two  years  before  he 
heard  of  Dr.  Findlay's  "  Agency  for  African  Coloniza- 
tion." ^  In  the  same  letter  in  which  the  birth  of  Moses 
Drury  Hoge  was  announced,  his  father  expresses  a  desire  to 
find  a  field  of  labor  where  slavery  did  not  exist.  In  conse- 
quence he,  too,  moved  to  Ohio.  His  younger  son,  William, 
in  a  letter  to  his  affianced  bride,  with  regard  to  their  domestic 
arrangements,  expresses  the  desire  not  to  own  a  slave,  al- 
though he  did  not  wish  to  separate  her  from  any  loved  and . 
trusted  family  servant.  Her  father,  although  a  large  slave- 
holder, once  wrote  for  one  of  the  Virginia  papers  an  article 
signed  "Abolition" — before  that  name  became  identified  with 
the  Abolition  party — advocating  a  plan  of  gradual  emanci- 
pation.^ His  son,  the  Rev.  Dabney  Carr  Harrison,  although 
a  man  of  scholarly  tastes  and  habits,  chose  his  pastoral 
charge  on  account  of  the  large  opportunity  it  afforded 
for  missionary  work  among  the  slaves.  And  Moses  Drury 
Hoge,  on  receiving  a  number  of  slaves  from  his  wife's  estate, 
at  once  offered  them  their  liberty.  Only  one  accepted,  and 
that  one  had  not  known  him.  He  afterwards  bought  five 
slaves,  the  relatives  of  hired  servants  of  his,  whose  position 
was  uncomfortable,  and  set  them  at  liberty.  Such  pecuniary 
sacrifices  are  far  more  eloquent  of  an  interest  in  human  lib- 
erty and  the  welfare  of  humanity  than  the  most  violent  anti- 
slavery  harangues.  Yet,  while  such  was  the  personal  atti- 
tude of  Dr.  Hoge  and  others  who  have  been  mentioned, 
not  one  of  them  would  have  pronounced  the  relation  between 
master  and  slave  in  itself  sinful.  All  of  them  freely  admitted 
slave-holders  to  the  communion.    All  of  them  subscribed  to 

*  Letter  from  Dr.  James  Hoge  to  Dr.  Plumer,  March  10,  1859. 
'  Mr.  Webster's  "March  7th  speech"  comments  on  the  efifect  of  the 
abolition  societies  in  stifling  such  discussion  in  the  South. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital,  137 

those  church  declarations  that  pronounced  the  relation  scrip- 
turally  lawful.  They  recognized  the  evils.  They  abhorred 
the  iniquitous  traffic  by  which  slaves  were  brought  to  our 
shores ;  but  they  refused  to  count  as  sinners  those  men  who 
"bought  the  first  cargoes  of  slaves  to  save  their  lives,  while 
sending  to  the  mother-country  unheeded  protests  against 
their  introduction  into  Virginia;  they  refused  to  condemn 
those  who  afterwards  acquired  them  by  inheritance  or  pur- 
chase, or  to  countenance  any  effort  to  deprive  them  of 
legally  recognized  property  without  due  compensation ;  and 
they  were  unwilling  to  join  in  any  agitation  for  wholesale 
•emancipation  so  long  as  such  emancipation  seemed  to  involve 
greater  evils  for  the  slaves  and  for  the  country  than  slavery 
itself.  The  colonization  scheme  seems  now  one  of  the  wildest 
<ireams  that  was  ever  conceived  in  the  mind  of  man ;  but  its 
conception,  and  the  heroic  efforts  to  make  it  succeed,  are  the 
strongest  possible  demonstration  of  earnestness  of  purpose 
to  solve  a  problem  that  seemed  otherwise  insoluble.  An  in- 
teresting relic  of  the  sacrifices  made  in  this  enterprise  is  a 
letter  from  Dr.  Hoge  to  Dr.  Plumer,  enclosing  fifty  dol- 
lars and  a  list  of  articles  that  the  Doctor  was  to  purchase 
and  forward  by  a  ship  about  to  sail  from  Baltimore.  Mrs. 
Rice  had  learned  that  one  of  her  slaves  who  had  been  sent 
out  by  the  Colonization  Society  was  in  need,  and  she  took 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  relieve  his  wants.  The 
^ood  woman  was  poor  and  these  pastors  were  busy ;  but  she 
cheerfully  gave  her  money  and  they  their  time  to  fulfil  what 
all  considered  a  sacred  responsibility. 

If  these  men  cast  themselves  in  with  the  Confederate 
cause,  it  was  evidently  not  to  preserve  slavery. 

Nor  were  they  lacking  in  love  for  the  Union,  and  loyalty 
to  the  Federal  idea  and  the  Federal  government.  On  March 
17,  1850,  during  the  great  debates  in  Washington,  Mr.  Hoge 
wrote  to  Dr.  Plumer :  'T  have  been  trying  to  get  a  chance 
to  slip  off  to  Washington  for  a  few  days.  I  want  to  see 
isomething  of  the  national  life  at  the  focus;   but  now  I  sup- 


138  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

pose  all  the  big  guns  are  fired !  ^  Disunion  indeed !  Dis- 
union of  these  United  States !  I  wish  Old  Hickory  was  alive 
— I  just  wish  Old  Hickory  was  alive!" 

Again,  in  1851,  writing  to  Dr.  Plumer  in  commenda- 
tion of  his  letter  on  the  Union  in  the  Journal  of  Commerce^ 
he  expresses  his  great  regret  at  observing  a  feeling  of  grow- 
ing indifference  to  the  Union  on  the  part  of  the  planters  in 
various  counties  in  Virginia  he  had  recently  visited.  "I  was 
pained  in  observing  the  extensive  disaffection  to  the  Union 
which  seemed  to  prevail  in  that  part  of  Virginia.  It  strikes 
me  if  you  expressed  anything  too  strongly  it  was  when  you 
spoke  of  the  small  number  in  the  South  who  are  in  favor  of 
secession,  if  it  could  be  accomplished  peacefully."  In  1859, 
Dr.  William  Hoge  wrote  his  brother  from  New  York  in 
the  same  strain : 

To-morrow  is  our  Thanksgiving  Day.  One  thing 
darkens  its  joy.  Shall  as  many  States  ever  again  celebrate 
one  day  united  in  one  Confederacy?  God  has  already 
chased  away  many  dark  clouds  and  averted  the  bolts  which 
threatened  to  rend  us  asunder.  I  trust  and  pray  he  will 
still  save  us  from  the  wrath  and  folly  of  war.  But  my 
own  hopes  have  never  been  so  darkened.  The  people  have 
in  a  great  measure  lost  their  horror  of  disunion.  I  still 
believe  an  overwhelming  majority  love  the  union.  But 
words  which  were  once  hardly  whispered  are  now  spoken 
aloud — yea,  shouted  with  exultation — and  the  number  of 
those  who  would  destroy  the  Union,  I  fear,  has  rapidly 
increased.  I  rejoice  in  your  calm,  clear  editorials  in  this 
present  crisis.     Your  answers  to  the  atrocious  and  lying 

have  been  all  I  could  desire.     Prime  has  done  noble 

service.  I  hope  you  will  do  what  you  can  to  let  the  South 
see  his  editorials,  as  the  expression  of  a  largely  held  senti- 
ment in  the  North.  The  South  never  needed  calmness  and 
moderation  more  than  now.  It  would  calm  and  console 
many  men  in  the  South  to  read  such  conservative  words 
from  one  of  the  most  influential  Northern  presses. 

^  Clay's  resolutions  were  offered  January  29th.  Calhoun  spoke  March 
4th;   Webster,  March  7th. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  139 

The  files  of  the  Central  Presbyterian  at  this  critical  period 
are  unfortunately  lost,  so  that  Dr.  Hoge's  editorial  views 
cannot  be  reproduced  in  his  own  languas:e;  but  the  follow- 
ing wise,  conservative,  patriotic  and  Christian  letter  from 
his  life-long  friend,  Dr.  Dabney,  sufficiently  sets  forth 
the  views  of  those  like-minded  with  himself.  Some  time 
before,  in  sending  an  "appeal  for  peace"  to  the  Central  Pres- 
byterian, he  closed  a  private  letter  accompanying  it  by  say- 
ing, "The  Christian  people  of  this  country  can  easily  save 
the  country  if  they  will.  What  a  burning  shame  if  they  will 
not."  Now,  after  Lincoln  was  elected  and  South  Carolina 
had  seceded,  he  wrote,  January  4,  1861 : 

Dear  Brother  Hoge:  I  employ  a  part  of  the  leisure  of 
this  fast  day  afternoon  to  answer  your  kind  letters,  recipro- 
cate your  affectionate  wishes  for  me  and  mine,  and  explain 
my  views  somewhat  on  public  afifairs.  It  is  from  God  that 
all  domestic  security  has  proceeded,  in  more  quiet  times, 
though  at  such  times  our  unthankfulness  causes  us  more 
to  overlook  his  good  hand;  and  his  power  and  goodness 
must  be  our  defence  now,  to  cover  us  and  our  feeble  house- 
holds "under  his  feathers." 

My  conviction  all  along  has  been  that  we  ministers,  when 
acting  ministerially,  publicly,  or  any  way  representatively 
of  God's  people  as  such,  should  seem  to  have  no  politics, 
and  many  reasons  urge  this.  One  of  the  most  potent  is, 
that  else  their  moral  power  (and  through  their  fault  the 
moral  power  of  the  church)  to  act  as  peacemakers  and 
mediators  will  be  lost.  I  thought,  too,  that  I  saw  very 
plainly  that  there  was  plenty  of  excitement  and  passion; 
that  our  people  were  abundantly  touchy  and  wakeful  con- 
cerning aggression,  and  that  there  were  plenty  of  politi- 
cians to  make  the  fire  burn  hot  enough,  without  my  help  to 
blow  it.  Hence  my  public  and  professional  action  has  been 
only  that  of  a  pacificator,  and  that  only  on  Christian  (not 
political)  grounds  and  views.  I  believe  that  in  this  humble 
attempt  I  have  done  and  am  doing  a  little  good,  which  my 
God  will  not  forget,  although  it  may,  alas !  seem  for  the 
present  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  overmuch  evil.  "The 
day  will  reveal  it." 


I40  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

But  I  have  my  politics  personally,  and  at  the  polls  act  on 
them.  They  are  about  these.  I  voted  for  Breckenridge, 
fully  expecting  to  be  beaten ;  and,  therefore,  preferring  to 
be  beaten  with  the  standard-bearer  most  theoretically  cor- 
rect. But  if  I  had  seen  that  Bell  or  even  Douglass  had  a 
chance  to  beat  Lincoln,  I  could  have  voted  for  either.  I 
have  considered  the  state  of  Northern  agression  as  very 
ominous  for  many  years  (as  you  know,  having  stronger 
views  of  this  four  years  ago  than  most  of  our  people)  ;  but 
I  do  not  think  that  Lincoln's  election  makes  them  at  all 
more  ominous  than  they  were  before.  I  believe  that  we 
should  have  effectually  checkmated  his  administration,  and 
have  given  the  Free  Soil  party  a  "thundering"  defeat  in 
1864.  Hence,  I  consider  Lincoln's  election  no  proper  casus 
belli,  least  of  all  for  immediate  separate  secession,  which 
could  never  be  the  right  way,  under  any  circumstances. 
Hence  I  regard  the  conduct  of  South  Carolina  as  unjusti- 
fiable towards  the  United  States  at  large,  and  towards  her 
Southern  sisters.  She  has,  in  my  views,  zvorsted  the  com- 
mon cause,  forfeited  the  righteous  strength  of  our  position, 
and  aggravated  our  difficulties  of  position  a  hundred  fold ; 
yet  regard  to  our  own  rights  unfortunately  compel  us  to 
shield  her  from  the  chastisement  which  she  most  condignly 
deserves.^  But,  even  in  shielding  her,  we  must  see  to  it, 
as  we  believe  in  and  fear  a  righteous  God,  that  we  do  no 
iniquity,  as  she  has  done.  For  instance,  the  power  of  a 
Federal  government  to  fight  an  independent  State  back 
into  the  Union  is  one  thing ;  the  right  of  that  government 
to  hold  its  own  property,  fairly  paid  for  and  ceded  (the 
forts)  is  another  thing.  Take  South  Carolina's  own 
theory,  that  she  is  now  a  foreign  nation  to  the  United 
States  and  rightfully  so,  how  can  it  be  the  duty  of  the 
President  or  of  Congress,  sworn  to  uphold  the  laws,  to 
surrender  the  soil  and  property  of  the  United  States  to  a 
foreign  nation  insolently  and  threateningly  demanding 
them;   and,  with  a  sauciness  almost  infinite,  saying  to  the 

^  Perhaps  Dr.  Dabney  goes  further  in  his  condemnation  of  South 
Carolina  than  Dr.  Hoge  would  have  done;  but  in  the  main  position, 
that  Lincoln's  election,  without  some  overt  attack  upon  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  States,  was  no  sufficient  ground  for  secession,  their  views 
were  the  same.     Compare  notes  of  address  on  page  146. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  141 

United  States,  "You  shall  not  take  any  additional  measures 
to  defend  your  own  property ;  if  you  do  so,  we  will  fight." 
Hence,  if  I  were  king  in  Virginia,  I  would  say  to  the  Pres- 
ident, "You  are  entitled,  as  head  of  the  United  States,  to 
hold  the  forts,  to  strengthen  your  own  garrisons,  to  do 
anything  defensive  in  them  you  choose,  till  they  lawfully 
change  owners  by  equal  purchase.  If  you  are  assailed,  beat 
them  off,  and  their  blood  be  on  their  own  heads."  But  if 
an  attempt  were  made  to  subdue  South  Carolina  herself, 
without  first  offering  to  her  such  a  redress  of  her  federal 
grievances  as  would  he  satisfactory  to  the  moderate,  just 
majority  of  her  Southern  sisters,  I  would  say,  "Hands  off, 
at  your  peril." 

Now,  it  may  be  said,  this  is  all  theoretically  right;  but 
it  is  all  out  of  date  at  this  crisis ;  the  crisis  is  too  dangerous 
to  admit  of  ethical  niceties.  We  must  "go  it  blind,"  and 
stand  or  fall  with  South  Carolina.  I  reply  it  is  never  too 
late,  or  too  dangerous  to  do  right.  Verily,  there  is  a  God 
who  judgeth  in  the  earth.  How  can  we  appeal  to  him  in 
the  beginning  of  what  may  be  a  great  and  arduous  contest, 
when  we  signalize  its  opening  by  a  wrong?  Besides,  if 
we  are  to  do  anything  prosperously  or  wisely  we  must 
clear  ourselves,  before  the  great  mass  of  the  Union-loving, 
God-fearing  men  of  the  North,  of  this  wanton  breach  of 
federal  compacts,  and  disregard  of  vested  rights,  which 
South  Carolina  is  trying  to  commit. 

But  I  greatly  fear  the  temper  of  our  people  is  no  longer 
considerate  enough  to  place  themselves  thoroughly  in  the 
right  in  this  matter.  In  view,  then,  of  the  actual  state  of 
affairs,  justifiable  or  unjustifiable,  I  would  say  that  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  ought,  on  the  first  day  it  meets,  to 
call  a  State  convention.  It  ought  also  to  take  immediate 
steps  for  a  concert  of  the  Southern  States,  to  be  well  knit 
as  soon  as  their  several  State  conventions  can  elect  com- 
missioners ;  to  present  a  united  front  to  the  North,  for  two 
objects:  to  demand  firmly  our  rights  within  the  Union, 
and  to  limit  any  Federal  or  Northern  collision  with  South 
Carolina,  within  the  limits  I  have  defined  above.  This 
congress  of  commissioners  should  also  have  a  sort  of  alter- 
native power  given  them,  to  be  used  only  on  condition  that 
an  extra  session  of  Congress  passes  a  force  bill  under  Lin- 


142  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

coin;  and,  in  that  event,  to  declare  our  allegiance  to  the 
Federal  Union  suspended  till  such  measures  are  relin- 
quished, and  to  organize  adequate  measures  of  self- 
defence.  And  this  alternative  power  they  should  use 
promptly  in  that  event.  Meanwhile,  each  State  Legislature 
should  diligently  provide  for  self-defence. 

I  have  thought,  ever  since  the  secession  movement  began 
in  South  Carolina,  that  the  idea  of  a  tertimn  quid,  or  cen- 
tral confederation,  as  a  temporary  arrangement,  might  be 
useful.  But  this  on  two  conditions :  that  any  attempt  or 
diplomatic  overtures  to  construct  it  should  not  for  a  mo- 
ment supersede,  but  only  proceed  abreast  with,  our  prepar- 
ations for  the  dernier  resort;  and  that  the  border  slave 
States  should  utterly  refuse  to  enter  it,  except  on  a  basis 
liberal  enough  to  them  to  assure  their  interests  unques- 
tionably, and,  moreover,  to  disgust  New  England,  and 
prevent  her  accession  to  it  for  a  while. 

Once  more,  we  should  all  remember  that  America  is  one 
in  race,  in  geography,  in  language,  in  material  interests. 
Even  if  we  angrily  divide,  there  will  be  powerful  interests 
drawing  us  together  again,  after  the  wire  edge  of  our  spite 
is  worn  off.  Every  good  man,  even  after  separation  seems 
inevitable,  should  try  to  act  with  a  view  to  the  speediest 
reunion. 

Such  M^as  the  cautious,  self-restrained  attitude  of  one  who 
became  a  most  redoubtable  champion  of  the  Confederacy.  It 
was  the  powerful  influence  of  such  an  element  in  Virginia 
that  restrained  its  first  convention  from  secession.  In  a  lit- 
tle while  all  was  changed.  Virginia  seceded  with  the  enthu- 
siastic approbation  of  this  very  class.  What  wrought  the 
change  ?  We  will  not  reply  with  any  word  from  the  South. 
A  letter  to  Dr.  Hoge  from  one  of  the  foremost  ministers 
of  the  North — Northern  in  ancestry,  birth,  rearing,  and  all 
his  association — will  sufficiently  answer.  It  is  dated  April 
1 6,  1 86 1,  the  day  after  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation 
calling  for  seventy-five  thousand  troops : 

My  Dear  Brother  :  The  thing  we  have  feared  is  upon 
us.  The  spirit  of  Cain  is  rampant,  and  we  seem  about  to 
plunge  headlong  into  an  unnatural  and  diabolical  war.    We 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  143 

may  not  long  have  the  privilege  of  even  writing  to  each 
other.  An  impulse  which  I  cannot  resist  prompts  me  to 
salute  you  in  the  Lord,  and  through  you  any  of  the  pre- 
cious Christian  souls  who  ministered  to  me  and  mine  in  my 
late  visit  to  your  city,  and  who  may  inquire  after  me. 

You  are  right  in  the  impression  expressed  in  your  letter 
to  the  Central  Presbyterian,  that  Virginia  has  nothing  to 
expect  by  way  of  conciliation  or  concession  from  the 
North.  The  policy  of  the  administration  has  evidently  been 
coercion  and  subjugation  from  the  first,  and  it  has  so  man- 
aged its  cards  as  to  throw  the  appearance  of  aggression 
upon  the  Southern  States.  The  war  spirit  is  fearfully 
aroused  here,  and  the  fierce  demon  of  religious  fanaticism 
breathes  out  threatening  and  slaughter.  It  is  not  safe  even 
for  a  minister  to  counsel  peace.  God  help  me,  for  I  know 
not  what  to  do  or  say.  There  seems  to  me  to  be  only  one 
way  to  avoid  a  bloody  war  in  which  all  we  hc^d  dear  will 
perish,  and  which  will  end,  according  to  the  examples  of 
history,  in  anarchy  first,  and  then  military  despotism ;  and 
that  is  the  immediate  secession  of  Virginia  and  the  other 
border  States.  The  hesitancy  of  the  Old  Dominion  only 
makes  her  an  object  of  contempt  in  the  eyes  of  the  domi- 
nant party,  and  encourages  the  popular  belief  that  the 
South  will  easily  be  subdued.  Those  who  have  been  re- 
garded as  soberminded  Christian  men  here  talk  now  about 
wiping  out  the  Southern  Confederacy  as  an  easy  thing.  If 
Virginia  would  stand  up  armed  and  protest  against  what 
is  now  the  avowed  purpose  of  subjugation,  it  might  stay 
the  fratricidal  hand,  and  secure  a  peaceful  separation  be- 
tween North  and  South.  It  may  seem  strange  to  you  that 
/  should  be  in  favor  of  disunion.  But,  alas !  the  Union  is 
already  dissolved,  whatever  Mr.  Lincoln  may  choose  to 
say.  What  was  once  our  country  is  dismembered  by  the 
blind  folly  of  our  rulers,  and  the  only  question  is,  shall  we 
separate  now  in  peace,  or  fight  for  a  generation,  and  then 
separate.  May  Virginia,  who,  in  the  person  of  her  own 
Washington,  once  vindicated  the  right  of  revolution 
against  a  government  that  refused,  like  ours,  to  recognize 
facts,  do  so  again ;  not  by  an  eight-years  war,  but  by 
throwing  her  proud  shield  over  her  younger  sisters,  and 
saying  stand  hack  to  those  who  would  wipe  them  out.  If 
she  does  not  secede  now,  she  deserves  the  subjection  that 


144  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

awaits  her.  But  I  did  not  intend  to  write  you  a  political 
harangue.  I  only  wanted  to  thank  you  and  yours  for  your 
kindness  to  me,  and  to  assure  you  once  more  that  there  is 
one  on  this  side  of  the  line  who  does  not  think  you  traitors, 

cowards  or  fools.    Mrs. joins  me  in  kind  regards  to 

your  family.    In  great  sadness, 

Yours  in  Christ,  ^ 

The  proclamation  had  just  the  effect  anticipated  by  the 
writer  of  this  letter.  In  an  address  after  the  war,  Dr.  Hoge 
described  the  scene  in  the  convention  the  day  after  it  was 
received. 

The  morning  after  it  was  received  it  was  my  office  to 
open  the  session  of  the  convention  with  prayer.  On  enter- 
ing the  hall,  I  was  immediately  impressed  with  the  scene 
presented.  None  of  the  members  were  seated;  all  were 
standing  in  scattered  groups  earnestly  discussing  some- 
thing. Approaching  the  member  who  represented  my 
native  county  of  Prince  Edward,  a  man  of  noble  presence 
and  rare  intelligence,  courteous  and  chivalrous,  ever  seek- 
ing to  know  what  was  true  that  he  might  do  what  was 
right,  I  asked  him  what  had  happened.  "Have  you  not 
heard,"  he  answered,  "of  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation  ?"  and 
then  proceeded  to  inform  me  of  its  probable  effect.  Up  to 
that  day  my  friend  had  been  an  earnest  advocate  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  imion  of  the  States ;  from  that  day  his 
loyalty  found  a  new  centre.  When  the  war  commenced, 
Virginia  had  no  more  gallant  soldier.  Like  so  many  of  her 
noblest  sons,  he  was  as  heroic  in  the  field  as  he  had  been 
faithful  to  duty  as  a  civilian  until  he  received  his  mortal 
wound  and  was  numbered  with  the  brave — 

' '  Who  sink  to  rest. 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest." 

The  gallant  Thornton  was  a  type  of  an  uncounted  host, 
clinging  to  the  Union  with  a  passionate  devotion  until  the 
imperilled  Commonwealth  required  and  received  the  alle- 
giance of  her  sons. 

^  The  name  would  add  greatly  to  the  strength  of  the  letter,  but  is 
withheld  for  obvious  reasons. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  145 

The  same  clay  Virginia  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession. 
Slie  had  not  approved  the  secession  of  her  Southern  sisters. 
She  had  no  wish  to  separate  from  the  Union  herself.  She 
knew  that  her  soil  would  be  the  battle-ground  of  the  con- 
tending armies.  But  she  had  no  alternative.  She  must 
either  throw  herself  in  the  breach,  or  join  in  the  subjugation 
of  her  sister  commonwealths,  who — wisely  or  unwisely — 
had  asserted  what  Virginians  believed  to  be  their  inherent 
right  to  a  separate  existence.  In  such  a  dilemma  she  could 
not  hesitate;  nor  did  she.  Henceforth,  in  the  minds  of  her 
sober.  Christian  men,  it  was  not  a  question  of  slavery,  of 
secession,  or  of  Union.  It  was  a  question  of  self-defence, 
self-government,  and  constitutional  liberty. 

On  June  3,  1861,  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  his  sister,  Mrs.  Mar- 
quess : 

My  Dear  Sister  :  I  do  not  know  how  I  can  gratify  you 
more  than  to  write  you  something  about  your  "bold  sol- 
dier boy." 

I  saw  him  mustered  into  service  by  the  inspector-general 
on  the  arrival  of  the  company  in  Richmond,  and  I  was 
present  when  they  marched  into  the  "Camp  of  Instruction," 
where  they  are  now  quartered  in  their  pretty  white  tents. 
Edgar  is  the  most  soldierly  looking  man  in  the  company — 
erect,  tall  and  martial  in  his  bearing.  He  and  Whitlocke 
Hoge  dined  with  us  yesterday  after  the  morning  service 
in  church.  It  was  a  communion  season.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Atkinson  preached,  and  it  was  an  impressive  sight  to  see 
about  thirty  of  his  company  ^  partake  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. At  night  I  preached  in  camp,  where  I  have  volun- 
tarily been  acting  as  chaplain  for  about  five  weeks,  and 
preaching  as  often  as  my  other  engagements  would  permit. 
I  did  not  ask  such  an  appointment,  but,  without  my  solici- 

^  The  students  of  Hampden-Sidney  College  volunteered  as  a  com- 
pany, under  their  President,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  P.  Atkinson,  as 
captain.  They  were  captured  in  West  Virginia,  and,  on  account  of  their 
youth,  released  on  parole.  Subsequently  some  of  them  were  exchanged 
and  re-entered  the  army.  Among  these  was  the  Whitlocke  Hoge  men- 
tioned in  the  letter,  a  son  of  the  Dr.  Thomas  Hoge  previously  men- 
tioned (page  15).    He  and  his  brother  were  killed  in  the  same  battle. 


146  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

tation,  the  Military  Bureau  last  week  gave  me  a  commis- 
sion as  chaplain.  I  hope  I  shall  be  stationed  at  the  "Camp 
of  Instruction"  about  two  miles  from  the  city,  and  then  I 
shall  not  be  separated  from  my  congregation.  I  suppose 
Captain  Atkinson's  company  will  be  stationed  there  for 
several  weeks,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  they  will  be  called 
into  active  service  at  all,  at  least  not  until  older  and  hardier 
companies  have  all  been  called  into  the  field. 

With  my  whole  mind  and  heart  I  go  into  the  secession 
movement.  I  think  providence  has  devolved  on  us  the 
preservation  of  constitutional  liberty,  which  has  already 
been  trampled  under  the  foot  of  a  military  despotism  at  the 
North.  And  now  that  we  are  menaced  with  subjugation 
for  daring  to  assert  the  right  of  self-government,  I  con- 
sider our  contest  as  one  v^hich  involves  principles  more 
important  than  those  for  which  our  fathers  of  the  Revo- 
lution contended. 

But  you  have  seen  a  pretty  full  expression  of  my  views 
in  the  Central  Presbyterian  before  and  since  my  editorial 
connection  with  it  ended. 

You  may  rest  assured  that  Edgar  shall  have  all  the 
care  and  attention  we  can  give  him  during  his  stay  in 
camp.  It  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to  serve  him  in 
any  way. 

I  have  fitted  up  a  large  tent  at  the  camp  and  provided  it 
with  a  fine  library  of  books  and  magazines,  as  a  free 
reading-room  for  the  men.  It  will  afford  much  pleasure 
particularly  to  the  Hampden-Sidney  boys. 

Among  Dr.  Hoge's  papers  were  found  the  following 
notes  of  an  address  delivered  on  some  Confederate  memorial 
occasion.  They  sum  up  what  has  gone  before,  and  introduce 
us  to  the  strenuous  and  solemn  scenes  through  which  we 
must  presently  follow  him : 

Some  Characteristics  of  the  Confederate  Struggle  for 
Independence. 

I.  The  marked  deliberation  with  which  it  was  under- 
taken. The  convention  of  Virginia  opposed  to  disunion. 
Proofs  of  this.  The  ordinance  of  secession  not  passed  until 
the    publication    of    Lincoln's    proclamation    calling    for 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  147 

troops.  Mr.  Preston's  speech  after  the  secession  of  South 
Carolina,  heard  by  the  Legislature  with  respectful  atten- 
tion, but  followed  by  no  action. 

2.  The  unity  and  ardor  with  which  the  war  was 
waged  when  it  once  commenced.  Volunteers  all  over 
the  State;  university  and  colleges,  even  theological 
seminaries,  emptied  of  students.  Other  evidences  of 
enthusiasm. 

3.  The  sacrifices  cheerfully  made ;  the  sufferings  un- 
complainingly endured  as  the  war  progressed.  Why  such 
sacrifices  and  sufferings  were  necessary.  Food,  medicines, 
clothing,  military  stores.  Constantly  diminishing  num- 
bers ;  no  recruits ;  no  mercenaries  employed ;  none  ob- 
tainable.   Effects  of  the  blockade  of  our  ports. 

4.  The  heroism  displayed  after  defeats.  The  difficulties 
to  be  overcome  in  all  departments  of  business.  An  impov- 
erished people.  The  resolution  exhibited  in  rebuilding  the 
ruins.    The  loyalty  of  Confederate  soldiers  to  their  parole. 

5.  The  intense  affection  with  which  the  memories  of  the 
war  are  cherished.  Observances  of  anniversaries.  Holly- 
wood Association.  Erection  of  monuments.  Reasons  for 
this  affection.  A  war  of  principle.  A  defensive  war.  A 
war  in  which  every  family  was  represented — in  which 
nearly  every  family  suffered  a  bereavement. 

6.  The  religious  element,  so  pronounced,  all-pervading 
and  controlling.  The  religious  character  of  the  great 
leaders.    The  chaplain  service. 

The  last  paragraph  gives  the  key-note  to  Dr.  Hoge's 
life  for  the  next  four  years.  The  religious  welfare  of  the 
soldiers  was  the  "all-pervading  and  controlling"  considera- 
tion. Never  was  a  Christian  people  more  thoroughly 
aroused  in  a  great  evangelistic  movement  than  were  the 
Christians  of  the  South  in  their  efforts  to  evangelize  the 
army.  Churches  freely  gave  up  their  pastors,  and  pastors 
joyfully  left  their  comfortable  homes,  to  join  in  this  great 
work,  in  consequence  of  which  wave  after  wave  of  spiritual 
blessing  swept  through  the  camps.  It  was  Dr.  Hoge's 
wish  at  first  to  become  chaplain  to  a  regiment,  but  he  was 
persuaded  that  his  position  at  the  centre  was  of  more  com- 


148  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

manding  influence.  We  have  already  seen  him  in  his  work 
at  the  Camp  of  Instruction,  afterwards  known  as  "Camp 
Lee."  A  greater  opportunity  seldom  came  to  man,  and  he 
improved  it  with  all  the  energy  of  his  soul.  It  is  estimated 
that  during  this  service  he  preached  to  over  a  hundred  thou- 
sand men.  It  was  almost  like  preaching  to  an  army  from 
the  wayside  as  they  marched  past.  The  men  before  him  one 
Sunday  would  by  the  next  be  on  the  march  or  in  the  field. 
Impressions,  if  made  at  all,  must  be  made  quickly.  There 
was  no  time  to  lay  foundations,  or  to  prepare  the  ground  for 
seed-sowing.  The  truth  must  be  like  their  own  shots — 
quick,  vivid,  unerring.  Dr.  Hoge's  habitual  readiness 
and  power  of  adaptation  made  him  the  very  man  for  this 
kind  of  preaching.  Then,  like  all  army  preaching,  it  was 
very  solemn  work.  We  glibly  say,  "In  the  midst  of  life  we 
are  in  death,"  but  it  was  very  different  to  face  men  who  were 
in  jeopardy  every  hour;  whom  no  bloom  of  youth,  no  vigor 
of  constitution,  no  care  or  prudence,  could  insure  against  the 
pestilence  that  walked  in  darkness  or  the  destruction  that 
wasted  at  noonday.  But  in  those  congregations  there  was 
not  only  the  solemnity  of  danger  to  be  incurred,  but  of  duty 
to  be  done — duty  that  must  be  performed  in  spite  of  danger 
and  in  the  face  of  death.  These  two  thoughts  were  the 
dominant  notes  in  the  preaching  of  the  Confederate  chap- 
lains— the  grace  of  Christ  to  strengthen  in  the  hour  of  duty 
and  to  save  in  the  hour  of  death. 

To  this  service  Dr.  Hoge  gave  every  Sunday  afternoon, 
Dr.  Moore  taking  the  afternoon  service  at  his  church, 
and  he  preaching  for  Dr.  Moore  in  the  evening.  He  also 
preached  in  the  camp  at  least  twice  during  the  week. 
But  the  public  services  were  not  all ;  he  had  the  interests 
of  the  men  on  his  heart  to  such  a  degree  that,  in  spite  of 
their  great  multitude,  they  looked  upon  him  as  a  personal 
friend — quick  to  sympathize,  ready  to  help.  Nor  did  he 
hesitate  to  rebuke ;  and  he  had  that  quick  wit  that  made  his 
rebukes  stick  while  his  friendliness  took  away  the  sting. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  149 

Standing  once  with  a  group  of  soldiers,  some  of  whom  did 
not  know  him,  at  a  point  which  overlooked  the  camp  of  the 
enemy,  he  heard  one  of  them  say,  "I  wish  all  the  Yankees 

were  in  h ."    He  spoke  up,  "Would  you  not  as  soon  see 

them  sent  to  heaven?"    "No,  I  wish  they  were  all  in  h ." 

''Oh!" said  the  Doctor,"!  thought  you  would  probably  prefer 
them  to  be  where  there  would  be  less  probability  of  your 
meeting  them."  The  roar  of  laughter  from  his  comrades 
drove  home  the  rebuke  to  his  profanity. 

The  spiritual  fruits  of  this  work  can  never  be  told  this  side 
eternity.  But  all  through  life  Dr.  Hoge  was  meeting 
these  men  and  receiving  expressions  of  their  gratitude; 
sometimes  in  singular  ways.  Once,  long  after  the  war,  he 
was  looking  at  a  horse  that  he  thought  of  buying  at  a  livery 
stable  in  Baltimore.  One  of  the  bystanders — there  are 
always  bystanders  at  a  horse  trade — closed  one  eye  and 
jerked  his  thumb  over  his  shoulder,  as  an  intimation  to  him 
to  follow.  'T  don't  like  to  interfere  in  a  horse  trade,"  he 
began,  "but  I  can't  stand  by  and  see  you  imposed  on."  He 
proceeded  to  describe  some  unsoundness  in  the  animal.  "But 
why  do  you  do  this  for  me?"  said  Dr.  Hoge;  "what  do 
you  know  about  me?"  "Why,  ain't  you  Dr.  Hoge?  I 
reckon  I've  heard  you  preach  at  Camp  Lee  too  many  times 
not  to  know  you." 

Another  of  Dr.  Hoge's  regular  public  services  was  the 
honorary  chaplaincy  of  Congress.  As  it  was  not  an  official 
appointment,  there  appeared  in  one  of  the  papers  an  envious 
little  squib,  criticising  him  for  monopolizing  this  service.  It 
promptly  called  forth  from  Vice-President  Stephens  a  reply, 
stating  that  he  had  been  so  annoyed  by  the  difficulties  and 
irregularities  of  the  system  of  rotation  which  he  had  first 
tried,  that  he  had  asked  Dr.  Hoge,  who  could  always  be 
depended  upon,  to  take  it  regularly,  and  that  he  had  con- 
sented very  reluctantly  to  do  so. 

But  these  public  duties  were  a  small  part  of  the  additional 
cares  and  activities  that  devolved  upon  him  from  his  position 


150  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

at  the  Confederate  Capital.  Richmond  was  filling  up  with 
prominent  men  from  all  parts  of  the  South  to  whom  atten- 
tion had  to  be  shown.  Letters  from  all  parts  of  the  country- 
appealed  to  him  to  look  after  sons,  husbands,  brothers;  to 
visit  them  in  sickness,  or  to  give  information  about  them 
when  not  heard  from.  Bereavements  came  thick  and  fast  to 
his  own  people  and  to  countless  strangers  and  visitors  who 
turned  to  him  in  their  sorrow.  He  was  constantly  consulted 
about  the  chaplain  service ;  his  influence  continually  sought 
by  persons  seeking  civil  office  to  support  themselves  or  their 
loved  ones  in  these  trying  times.  Now  a  man  unfit  for  ser- 
vice was  conscripted,  and  he  would  save  a  valuable  citizen 
by  getting  him  transferred.  His  letters  take  us  into  the  very 
heart  of  these  times.    To  his  brother  (December  17,  1861)  : 

When  you  saw  something  of  my  manner  of  life  in  former 
days,  you  thought  me  a  busy  man,  but  I  am  now  the  most 
pressed,  the  most  beset  and  bothered  brother  you  ever  had. 

My  six  sermons  a  week,  and  funerals  extra,  might  fill 
up  all  my  time  reasonably  well,  with  pastoral  visits  thrown 
in  to  fill  up  the  chinks,  but  this  is  only  the  beginning  of 
Iliad.  I  have  opened  Congress  every  day  this  session,  with 
the  exception  of  two  occasions,  when  I  was  preaching 
funeral  sermons,  and  to-day,  when  Mrs.  Brown  was  in 
pressing  need  of  an  editorial.  And  then  the  company !  I 
sometimes  feel  as  if  company  was  a  curse.  I  am  really 
ashamed  of  myself  when  I  meet  on  the  streets  with  persons 
who  have  claims  on  my  hospitality,  and  with  whom  I 
would  be  delighted  to  have  intercourse,  whom  I  do  not 
invite  to  my  house  because  1  dare  not  give  them  just  the 
time  which  even  sensible  people,  ready  to  make  allowances, 
would  require  on  the  part  of  a  host. 

Then  so  many  people  seeking  office,  or  seeking  employ- 
ment, come  to  me,  and  so  many  write,  asking  me  to  get 
them  passports  or  do  something  for  them  in  some  of  the 
departments.  You  need  not  say,  "Why  do  you  attend  to 
these  things  to  the  neglect,  perhaps,  of  others  more  im- 
portant ?  Why  be  worried  by  these  numberless  vexations, 
instead  of  resolutely  turning  away  from  everything  except 
your  own  appropriate  work?"    Simply  because  I  cannot. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  151 

These  interruptions  are  inevitable,  and  much  of  this  extra 
office  and  job  and  commission  (without  pay)  work,  I 
ought  to  do  for  the  sake  of  common  humanity.  A  dis- 
charged soldier,  knowing  no  one  else  in  the  city,  writes  to 
me  to  get  his  pay ;  a  wife,  separated  from  her  husband, 
writes,  begging  me  to  get  her  a  permit  to  pass  through 
the  lines  and  go  to  him ;  an  exile,  driven  by  the  enemy 
from  his  home,  writes,  asking  if  I  can  assist  him  in  getting 
a  position  where  he  can  make  bread  for  his  destitute  fam- 
ily ;  and  as  sure  as  I  shut  myself  up  in  my  study,  and  reso- 
lutely refuse  to  open,  no  matter  who  knocks,  then  some  one 
calls  who  ought  to  have  been  admitted.  So  life  passes,  and 
you  may  moralize  and  give  sage  advice,  but  if  you  were  in 
my  position  these  war  times,  you  would  do  just  as  I  do — 
only  you  would  do  some  things  a  great  deal  better. 

His  brother  replied  (Jamiary  13,  1862)  : 

Your  last  letter  changed  my  views  not  a  little  as  to  the 
propriety  of  your  suffering  so  many  extra-ministerial 
duties  to  fall  upon  you.  I  am  sure  you  have  many  imperti- 
nent interruptions ;  that  many  secular  things  are  left  to 
you,  or  rather  forced  upon  you,  which  properly  belong  to 
others ;  but  I  am  sure  you  have  been  made  eyes  to  the 
blind,  feet  to  the  lame,  a  consolation  to  the  stranger,  the 
friendless  and  the  bereaved,  and  a  blessing  to  him  that  was 
ready  to  perish ;  and  all  this  not  merely  as  the  gospel 
preacher,  but  the  patient,  interrupted,  toiling  man.  God 
knows  better  than  we  do  where  we  can  serve  him  and  how. 
I  will  leave  you  to  his  guidance,  and  beset  you  no  more 
with  my  "lecturing."  I  wish  I  had  more  of  your  capacity 
for  labor.  My  opinion  of  myself  and  what  I  accomplish  is 
low  indeed,  I  assure  you. 

Again  he  writes  his  brother  (February  17,  1862)  : 

Life,  of  late,  has  been  all  work  and  no  play  with  me. 
The  number  of  soldiers  in  the  Camp  of  Instruction  having 
been  much  reduced,  I  have  been  preaching  the  last  three 
Sunday  afternoons  to  the  Fourteenth  Alabama  Regiment 
near  the  Reservoir.  Our  camp  will  soon  fill  up,  and  I  shall 
return  there  again.  Last  week  I  enclosed  three  hundred 
dollars,  the  amount  of  my  pay  as  chaplain  for  six  months, 


152  Moses  Drury  Hoge, 

to  the  Secretary  of  War,  requesting  him  to  appropriate  it 
to  the  use  of  our  soldiers  in  whatever  part  of  the  field  he 
thought  it  would  be  most  acceptable.  He  returned  me  a 
very  polite  letter  in  answer,  and  said  that  after  consulta- 
tion with  the  Quartermaster-General  and  the  Surgeon- 
General,  he  had  concluded  to  apply  it  to  the  purchase  of 
additional  comforts  for  the  sick  soldiers  at  Manassas, 
hoping  that  I  would  approve  of  that  disposition  of  my 
liberal  gift,  etc.,  etc. 

I  thus  accomplish  a  double  and  desired  purpose,  that  of 
preaching  to  the  troops,  and  of  making  a  pecuniary  con- 
tribution to  the  brave  fellows  who  are  fighting  for  me.  I 
think  I  can  do  more  in  this  way  than  by  fighting  myself, 
though  at  times  I  have  an  almost  resistless  inclination  to 
go  into  the  ranks. 

About  a  fortnight  ago  I  received  a  very  pleasant  letter 
from  Dabney.  He  was  then  at  Bowling  Green,  and  wrote 
very  hopefully  both  as  to  himself  and  as  to  the  army  there. 
He  bears  all  his  afiflictions  and  personal  privations  with  an 
equanimity  and  Christian  fortitude  very  beautiful  to  con- 
template. 

My  church  is  crowded  every  Sunday.  At  our  last  com- 
munion I  received  eleven  new  members  on  certificate  and 
examination,  and  hope  to  receive  as  many  more  at  the 
next.  I  am  truly  gratified  to  learn  that  you  have  so  much 
to  encourage  and  make  you  happy  in  your  present  field  of 
labor.  If  the  University  only  had  its  usual  number  of  stu- 
dents, the  position  would  be  one  of  the  very  finest  in  the 
South.    As  it  is,  it  is  a  very  attractive  one. 

The  "  Dabney  "  referred  to  in  this  letter  w^as  the  Rev. 
Dabney  Carr  Harrison,  Dr.  William  Hoge's  brother-in- 
law.  On  the  death  of  his  brother,  Lieutenant  Peyton  Harri- 
son, who  was  killed  at  Manassas,  he  raised  a  company,  of 
w^hich  he  was  made  captain,  and  volunteered  for  service.  He 
was  mortally  wounded  at  Fort  Donelson,  and  died  in  Nash- 
ville. He  had  just  written  his  brother-in-law,  after  speaking 
of  his  abiding  sense  of  loss  in  his  brother's  death,  "I  am  not 
sad ;  even  now,  when  deprived  of  my  precious  wife  and  little 
ones.  But  I  feel  as  if  I  would  rather  be  serious  the  rest  of 
my  life." 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  153 

Dr.  William  Hoge  prepared  a  sketch  of  his  life,  which 
was  widely  circulated  in  the  army.  The  Southern  General 
Assembly  had  placed  its  Publication  Committee  at  Rich- 
mond, and  this  little  tract  was  the  first  issued  from  its  press. 
It  is  to  this  that  Dr.  Hoge  alludes  in  his  next  letter  to  his 
brother.  He  was  about  to  publish  a  tribute  himself  when 
he  learned  his  brother's  intention.  Apart  from  the  personal 
reference,  the  letter  is  useful  as  showing  the  religious  work 
in  the  camp. 

To  his  brother  (March  26,  1862)  : 

I  wished  chiefly  to  dwell  on  his  soldierly  devotion  to 
duty,  and  his  Christian  activity  while  he  was  in  the  Camp 
of  Instruction.  There  I  saw  him  almost  daily  for  three 
months  or  more.  It  was  owing  to  his  agency  that  a  Chris- 
tian Association  was  formed  in  the  regiment  and  com- 
pletely org-anized  for  every  species  of  usefulness.  There 
was  a  Bible-class,  a  Sabbath-school,  and  arrangements 
made  even  for  teaching  those  who  were  unable  to  read, 
and  I  selected  the  Pictorial  Primer  of  the  Tract  Society 
for  that  purpose.  He  rendered  me  most  efficient  aid  in 
my  work  as  chaplain  during  his  stay  in  camp.  He  held 
prayers  every  evening  in  my  large  tent  for  several  weeks, 
for  the  benefit  not  only  of  his  company,  but  for  all  who 
wished  to  attend.  He  interested  himself  in  getting  the  men 
together  on  Sabbath  afternoons,  and  this  increased  the 
attendance  on  my  regular  services,  and  in  every  way  in 
his  power  he  gave  me  his  efficient  cooperation.  The  influ- 
ence of  his  presence  and  example  in  the  camp  during  these 
months  will  never  be  fully  appreciated  until  the  day  of  final 
revelation.  If  you  have  not  completed  your  tract,  I  wish 
you  would  dwell  a  little  on  these  facts,  and  give  my  testi- 
mony to  his  most  valuable  aid  in  my  efforts  to  promote 
the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  the  large  number  of 
men  who  were  then  gathered  in  the  Camp  of  Instruction, 
and  in  so  doing,  give  the  testimony  in  your  own  way  and 
in  language  better  chosen  and  more  forcible  than  mine.^ 


*  At  his  brother's  request  he  afterwards  wrote  a  fuller  statement,  that 
•Tvas  published  in  the  sketch. 


T54  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  have  not  been  in  my  usual  health 
for  the  past  two  weeks.  I  have  a  feeling  of  weariness  most 
of  the  time,  which  oppresses  me,  together  with  some  palpi- 
tation of  the  heaft.  Last  Monday  was  a  very  blue  day. 
On  Saturday,  at  four  p.  m.,  I  had  a  funeral  sermon  to- 
preach  in  my  church.  On  Sunday  I  preached  there  at 
eleven  o'clock  a.  m.,  and  in  camp  at  three  p.  m.,  out  in  the 
open  air,  with  a  cold,  raw  wind  blowing  hard  on  my  un- 
covered head,  and  then  again  in  Dr.  Moore's  church  at 
night.  All  four  of  these  sermons  were  delivered  without 
the  aid  of  a  manuscript  or  note,  and  that  kind  of  preach- 
ing is  generally  more  exhausting.  A  good  deal  of  my  time 
is  taken  up  by  having  so  constantly  to  open  the  deliberative 
bodies  here  with  prayer.  The  time  actually  spent  in  that 
exercise  is  nothing,  but  having  to  go  and  return  to  the 
Capitol  at  12  m.,  cuts  into  the  heart  of  every  day,  and 
when  there  I  am  often  tempted  to  stay,  during  the  interest- 
ing discussions  in  progress.  My  loss  of  time  amounts  in 
this  way  to  an  average  of  an  hour  a  day,  and  thirty  hours 
a  month  counts  up  during  a  congressional  term.  I  have 
acquired  an  unfortunate  popularity  for  prayer-making  in 
these  bodies,  chiefly,  no  doubt,  because  I  do  not  try  to  be 
eloquent,  as  so  many  ministers  do  on  these  occasions,  and 
more  especially  because  my  prayers  are  uniformly  short, 
containing,  I  suppose,  about  ten  petitions,  or  sentences,  as 
appropriately  arranged  as  I  can  make  them. 

As  the  spring  advanced,  Richmond,  which  had  seen  much 
of  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war,  was  to  have  all  its 
horrors  unrolled  before  its  eyes.  A  letter  to  his  eldest  daugh- 
ter (May  15,  1862)  displays  his  penetration  in  military  mat- 
ters, and  shows  the  advance  of  the  coming  storm : 

You  ask  why  the  Merrimac  was  destroyed.  Probably 
you  have  already  seen  a  solution  of  the  matter  in  the  news- 
papers. After  the  evacuation  of  Norfolk  by  our  army,  it 
became  necessary  to  make  some  disposition  of  the  Merri- 
mac. They  ought  to  have  dared  all  hazards,  and  run  her 
round  into  York  river,  but  they  preferred  to  send  her  up 
the  James.  She  drew  twenty-two  feet  of  water,  and  to 
lighten  her,  coal,  etc.,  was  taken  off.  This  raised  her 
wooden  underworks  above  the  water  line,  making  her  vul- 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  155 

nerable,  as  any  other  vessel  not  plated  would  have  been. 
But  she  still  drew  seventeen  feet  of  water,  and  the  pilot 
said  she  could  not  cross  the  bars.  It  was  then  impossible 
to  send  her  into  the  York  river  in  her  exposed  condition, 
her  wood  showing  between  the  iron  plating  and  the  water, 
and  accordingly  she  was  blown  into  a  thousand  fragments, 
and  so  perished  the  naval  glory  of  the  Confederacy,  after 
effecting  a  revolution  in  the  naval  history  of  the  world. ^ 

I  think  there  have  been  tremendous  blunders  committed. 
Norfolk  should  not  have  been  evacuated,  nor  the  Merriniac 
destroyed,  until  after  the  battle  which  McClellan  would 
have  been  compelled  to  fight  on  the  Chickahominy.  If  we 
had  defeated  him  there,  it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to 
have  abandoned  Norfolk,  nor  have  blown  up  the  Merriniac. 

If  we  had  been  defeated,  then  that  desertion  and  de- 
struction might  have  folloived.  But  as  it  was,  we  did  not 
wait  to  see  what  our  land  forces  could  do,  but  annihilated 
our  own  tower  of  strength  and  demolished  the  Norfolk 
Navy-yard ;  thus  opening  a  path  to  the  enemy  to  Rich- 
mond on  his  favorite  element,  the  water.  But  notwith- 
standing our  imbecility,  God  is  good  to  us.  I  wrote  you 
that  the  attack  on  our  river  barricades  had  commenced ; 
later  news  has  come  informing  us  that  one  of  the  enemy's 
gunboats,  the  Galena,  has  been  set  on  fire,  and  that  all  of 
them  had  retired.  So  we  have  a  breathing  time  allowed 
us.  They  will  doubtless  return  again,  but  in  the  mean- 
while we  will  be  strengthening  our  river  defences,  and  be 
ready  for  them,  as  I  trust,  the  next  time  they  come  up. 

As  the  peril  to  Richmond  increased,  his  brother  wrote 
(May  28,  1862)  : 

Of  course,  the  state  of  our  country  and  the  present  peril 
of  our  beautiful  Capital  lie  heavily  on  my  heart.  I  rejoice 
in  Jackson's  victories,  and  feel  like  reviving  the  old  cry, 
"Hurrah  for  Jackson !"  I  rejoice,  too,  to  learn  of  the  new 
and  resolute  spirit  that  animates  our  troops  near  Rich- 
mond. O  may  God  keep  them  firm,  and  make  them  vic- 
torious with  a  great  victory,  and,  above  all,  give  our  people 
that  temper,  which  I  fear  has  thus  far  been  lacking,  the 

^  A  remark  very  frequently  made  since,  and  more  abundantly  justified 
every  year,  but  it  is  surprising  to  find  it  in  a  contemporary  letter. 


156  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

temper  without  which  victory  would  be  a  curse.  This  is 
our  grand  need,  and  when  we  have  it,  I  believe  whatever 
else  we  need  will  quickly  come. 

On  May  31st,  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  his  brother : 

Susan  and  the  children  went  to  Prince  Edward  last 
week.  She  was  very  anxious  to  remain  and  assist  in  nurs- 
ing the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  but  both  Lacy  and 
Moses  were  attacked  with  sickness,  and  she  hurried  to 
the  country.  Thirty-five  of  the  sick  from  Ashland  have 
been  staying  in  my  lecture-room  this  week;  this  morning 
they  were  removed  to  a  large  hospital,  and  now  the  work 
of  cleaning  up  after  them  is  to  commence. 

One  poor  fellow  died  in  the  lecture-room  yesterday. 

But  for  the  tremendous  rainstorm  we  had  yesterday 
afternoon,  saturating  the  ground  and  swelling  the  streams, 
I  suppose  the  general  engagement  all  along  the  lines  would 
have  commenced  this  morning. 

I  had  my  first  sight  of  the  enemy  day  before  yesterday. 
I  rode  down  toward  Mechanicsville  as  far  as  our  last 
pickets.  The  enemy's  pickets  were  about  five  hundred 
yards  distant,  in  full  view.  On  the  hill  above,  I  could  see 
their  cannon,  some  cavalry,  and  their  battle  flag  (white 
field,  red  star  in  the  centre).  It  gave  me  new  indignation  to 
see  them  walking  and  riding  about  in  a  locality  with  which 
I  was  so  familiar.  McClellan  has  his  headquarters  at  my 
friend  Webb's  (Hampstead). 

There  is  no  panic  among  our  people.  Resistance  to  the 
death  is  the  calm  determination  of  the  citizens,  and  our 
soldiers  are  confident  of  victory.  This  is  Saturday,  and  I 
have  neither  text  chosen  for  my  sermons  to-morrow,  so  I 
can  only  add  that  I  am 

Your  affectionate  brother,  M.  D.  H. 

History  was  too  busy  with  other  matters  that  day  to 
record  how  those  sermons  were  prepared.  Ready  they 
doubtless  were ;  but  smelling  more  of  gunpowder,  one  would 
think,  than  of  the  lamp.  Before  they  w'ere  preached  he  had 
seen  war  in  its  awful  reality.  Much  has  been  written  of  that 
day's  battle  from  the  military  standpoint.  Dr.  Hoge  de- 
scribes it  from  the  human  standpoint : 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  157 

The  Battle  of  Seven  Pines. 

Copied  by  a  friend  from  notes  prepared  immediately  after  tny  return 
from  the  battle-Held.— M.  D.  H. 

Although  in  the  following  narrative  there  may  be  no- 
thing worthy  of  preservation,  yet,  while  the  incidents  are 
fresh  in  my  recollection,  I  will  record  them,  as  they  may, 
at  some  future  time,  be  more  interesting  in  the  review  than 
they  are  in  the  present  perusal. 

On  Saturday  evening,  May  31,  1862,  Colonel  B.  S.  Ewell 
and  I  set  off  on  horseback  for  the  field  of  action,  being 
assured  that  a  battle  had  commenced  by  the  booming  of 
cannon,  which  could  be  distinctly  heard  from  the  city  every 
few  moments. 

On  Friday  evening,  there  was  a  thunderstorm  of  several 
hours'  duration,  attended  by  a  rain  so  heavy  as  to  raise  the 
creeks  over  their  banks  and  deluge  the  flat  lands  over 
which  we  passed.  Very  soon  after  we  ascended  Fulton 
Hill,  we  saw  crowds  of  citizens  thronging  the  road — 
some  on  foot,  some  on  horseback  and  others  in  vehicles 
of  every  description,  many  of  them  stationary,  collected 
in  groups,  and  others  hastening  toward  the  scene  of  con- 
flict. 

A  large  crowd  occupied  the  road  and  fields  near  where 
the  first  pickets  were  stationed,  being  refused  permission 
to  pass.  Colonel  Ewell  and  myself  were  halted  for  a 
moment,  but  he  showed  his  permit  to  pass  the  lines,  and  I 
the  pass  Mr.  Ewell  had  procured  for  me  from  General 
Magruder,  and  we  were  allowed  to  go  on. 

Very  soon  we  came  in  sight  of  regiments  and  artillery 
companies  hastening  forward  to  the  scene  of  conflict.  Part 
of  the  time  we  kept  in  the  road,  one-third  of  which  was 
under  water,  occasionally  riding  out  into  the  field,  with  the 
hope  of  getting  along  faster,  but  the  ground  was  so  rough 
and  marshy  that  we  found  it  desirable  to  keep  as  much  as 
possible  in  the  road,  bad  as  it  was. 

We  halted  a  moment  at  a  building  about  two  miles  this 
side  of  the  battle-field,  where  we  saw  a  great  number  of 
our  wounded — which  had  been  brought  and  laid,  some  of 
them  on  the  floor,  and  others  on  the  ground  around  the 
house— our  surgeons  standing  over  them  with  bloody 
hands  and  knives,  busy  in  making  amputations,  in  band- 
aging up  wounds,  etc.     Before  reaching  this  building,  we 


158  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

saw  many  of  our  men  wounded,  yet  able  to  walk,  stag- 
gering on  toward  the  city ;  others  were  conveyed  on  horse- 
back, in  ambulances,  or  in  litters,  carried  by  their  comrades. 
Some  of  these  men  were  groaning,  others  seemed  ready  to 
faint  with  pain  or  loss  of  blood,  while  others  trudged  along 
with  great  sang  froid. 

We  also  were  met  by  squads  of  prisoners,  coming  in 
under  guard.  One  of  the  first  we  met  was  a  solitary 
prisoner,  an  Irishman,  whose  escort  stopped  for  some  rea- 
son in  a  field  by  the  roadside. 

Paddy  was  talking  and  gesticulating  in  an  animated 
manner,  and  as  we  came  up.  Colonel  Ewell  asked  him  if 
the  Yankees  were  retreating  at  the  time  he  was  taken.  He 
answered  very  promptly,  "When  you  get  down  to  the  Held, 
you  can  find  out  for  yourself."  Said  I,  "My  friend,  what 
is  your  opinion  about  it?"  He  touched  his  hat  in  a  most 
comical  manner,  and  made  me  a  bow,  as  much  as  to  say, 
"This  is  a  lemon  you  can't  squeeze."  He  seemed  as  reso- 
lute and  defiant  as  a  man  could  be,  and  not  a  bit  intimidated 
or  cast  down  by  his  capture. 

Presently  we  met  a  gang  of  about  a  hundred  prisoners, 
hurried  along  toward  the  town.  We  noticed  their  quick, 
■springy  step,  as  they  filed  past  us.  The  Northern  troops 
are  probably  better  disciplined  than  ours,  and  they  are 
naturally  quicker  in  their  movements,  and  these  men 
seemed  to  march  with  a  more  military  air  than  our  own 
soldiers  who  were  guarding  them. 

We  reined  up  our  horses  to  take  a  good  look  at  them. 
They  probably  took  us  for  officers,  and  a  great  many  of 
them  touched  their  caps  as  they  passed.  I  said  to  one,  as 
they  went  by,  "You  are  prisoners,  but  you  will  be  treated 
well."    Said  he,  "Thank  you  for  that,  sir." 

As  the  last  of  the  number  went  by,  one  of  our  citizens 
tegan  shaking  his  fist  at  them,  cursing  and  abusing  them 
in  a  most  vulgar  manner.  I  asked  him  if  he  was  a  soldier, 
and  on  his  replying  that  he  was  not,  I  told  him  that  the 
best  way  of  showing  his  hatred  of  the  enemy  was  to  fight 
them  in  the  ranks,  and  not  to  abuse  them  when  in  our 
power.  One  of  his  comrades  said  he  thought  so  too,  and 
the  man  looked  crest-fallen  at  the  rebuke. 

We  overtook  many  citizens  and  government  officials  as 
we  rode  on.     Among  others.  Captain  Woods,  on  a  fine 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  •  159 

horse ;  Captain  Alexander,  of  Missouri ;  Captain  Hardee, 
Secretary  Mallory,  Colonel  Morton,  of  Culpeper;  Bassett 
French,  Mr.  Cabell,  Commissary-General  Northrup,  and 
others,  though  few  of  them  went  as  far  toward  the  en- 
trenchments as  we  did.  As  we  came  nearer,  the  booming 
of  the  cannon  and  the  roll  of  musketry  became  tremendous, 
and  the  road  getting  more  and  more  miry,  we  struck  out, 
and  made  a  detour  through  a  body  of  woods  to  the  left  of 
the  battle-ground.  Here  we  began  to  see  dead  men  scat- 
tered about,  lying  in  various  positions,  some  almost  doubled 
up,  some  on  their  backs,  and  others  on  their  faces. 

We  overtook  two  or  three  men  on  horseback  in  the 
woods,  looking,  as  they  said,  for  the  wounded.  We  found 
the  thickets  so  close  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  along ;  and, 
as  the  enemy  were  shelling  that  body  of  woods,  and 
smashing  the  trees,  we  found  our  position  so  uncomfort- 
able that  we  struck  out  toward  the  road  again,  still  moving 
diagonally  toward  it.  When  we  emerged,  we  were  in  full 
view  of  the  battle.  The  smoke  was  so  thick  that  we  could 
not  see  the  enemy,  but  our  own  men  were  in  the  act  of 
pressing  on  and  driving  the  enemy  back  as  we  approached. 
Here  I  saw  the  first  skulkers,  and  these,  I  am  glad  to  say, 
were  few.  They  were  lying  flat  on  the  ground,  behind 
logs  or  stumps,  and  farther  on  I  saw  a  group  who  had 
taken  refuge  behind  a  chimney,  or  ruin  of  an  old  house. 
Some  of  those  nearest  to  us  cried  out,  "Don't  attempt  to 
cross  that  field,  gentlemen ;  it  is  too  dangerous."  We  soon 
had  evidence  of  the  fact,  for  a  bullet  whizzed  by  me,  and 
struck  a  tree  behind  me.  Mr.  Ewell  was  a  little  in  advance, 
and  he  told  me  that  a  ball  so  nearly  tipped  the  end  of  his 
nose  that  he  involuntarily  put  his  hand  to  feel  if  a  part  of 
it  had  not  been  snapped  off.  The  shells  were  screaming 
through  the  air,  and  the  minie-balls  making  the  peculiar 
see-ee-et,  which  renders  their  music  more  memorable  than 
agreeable. 

A  spent  ball  struck  my  horse  in  the  flank  and  made  him 
jump  around  in  a  very  lively  style.  Crossing  over  into  the 
road,  I  found  Captain  Alexander  and  young  Webb.  Cap- 
tain Alexander  told  me  my  horse  was  wounded,  and,  look- 
ing down,  I  saw  the  ground  was  bloody  under  him.  I  dis- 
mounted, but  finding  the  skin  unbroken,  I  saw  that  it  must 
have  come  from  some  other  source — from  the  body  of  one 


i6o  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

of  our  brave  boys,  I  fear.  Riding  along,  I  saw  a  man 
trying  to  get  away  from  the  field  a  youth  apparently  not 
more  than  sixteen  years  old,  shot  through  the  thigh,  and 
the  bone  broken.  Said  the  man,  "For  God's  sake,  Mister, 
let  this  boy  have  your  horse!"  I  dismounted,  took  his 
gun  (the  ramrod  of  which  had  been  lost)  and  his  oil-cloth, 
and  waded  through  the  mud  and  water  for  about  a  mile,, 
till  we  came  to  some  ambulances. 

There  was  some  difficulty  in  finding  room  for  him,  and 
he  asked  to  be  taken  off  from  the  horse  and  laid  on  the 
ground,  as  he  was  very  sick  at  the  stomach.  We  laid  him 
down  until  we  succeeded  in  finding  a  place  for  him  in  one 
of  the  ambulances,  which  was  waiting  for  a  load.  Seeing 
a  bayonet  on  the  roadside,  I  picked  it  up,  and  stuck  it  in 
my  saddle-girth ;  it  was  covered  with  blood,  whether 
Northern  or  Southern  I  do  not  know. 

In  one  of  the  long  water  reaches,  I  saw  two  men  on 
horseback  supporting  a  third,  who  was  also  mounted,  and 
who  seemed  to  be  desperately  wounded.  His  head  had 
fallen  back,  and  his  mouth  was  wide  open.  He  looked 
more  like  a  corpse  than  a  living  man.  As  they  floundered 
along  through  the  water,  a  negro  boy,  apparently  about 
eighteen  years  old,  riding  and  leading  another  horse,  looked 
at  the  group  with  a  face  full  of  horror  and  astonishment, 
until  he  broke  out  in  a  lamentable  cry,  "Oh !  that's  my 
Mass'  Eldridge"  (I  thought  that  was  the  name),  and  be- 
gan to  follow  the  men,  when  one  of  them  cried  out,  "Go 
back,  boy ;  it  is  not  your  Mass'  Eldridge ;  he  is  on  the 
field.  Carry  his  horse  to  him."  But  the  boy  still  cried 
aloud,  "Oh !  it  is  my  Mass'  Eldridge."  I  rode  up  to  him  and 
said,  "Come  with  me ;  we  will  overtake  them,  and  you  shall 
see  whether  it  is  your  master  or  not."  Calling  to  the  men 
to  stop,  they  halted  a  moment,  and  again  ordering  the  boy 
back,  I  told  them  I  had  brought  him  up,  and  I  asked  them 
to  let  him  take  a  good  look  at  the  man,  and  satisfy  himself 
whether  it  was  his  master  or  not.  They  consented,  and 
the  faithful  negro,  after  gazing  on  the  wounded  man  with 
a  look  of  the  intensest  eagerness,  found  at  last  that  he  was 
mistaken  and  went  back.  The  scene  was  one  of  the  most 
affecting  I  witnessed ;  the  plaints  of  the  wounded  did  not 
touch  my  heart  more  than  the  wailing  of  the  attached  ser- 
vant— inconsolable,  until  he  was  convinced  of  his  mistake. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  i6i 

Several  regiments  of  reinforcements  passed,  hurrying  on 
to  the  scene  of  strife.  Sitting  on  my  horse  at  the  roadside, 
and  facing  them  as  they  came  on,  I  was  astonished  at  the 
number  of  the  men  who  recognized  me  with  sahitations 
and  exclamations,  "What,  Mr.  Hoge,  you  here!"  Many 
asked  me  how  the  battle  was  going.  At  my  answer,  "Suc- 
cessful all  along  the  line,  the  enemy  falling  hack  every- 
where; make  haste,  boys,  or  you  zvill  be  too  late  to  share 
in  the  victory!"  they  would  cheer  and  press  on  with  a 
quicker  step.  It  helps  men  to  be  able  to  go  in  cheerily  to 
battle.  I  hope  I  was  able  to  give  our  brave  fellows  a  little 
encouragement  and  animation. 

I  rejoined  Mr.  Ewell  again,  and  we  sat  listening  to  the 
tremendous  fire  which  had  opened  on  our  left.  This  we 
afterwards  learned  was  on  the  "Nine-Mile  Road,"  as  it  is 
called,  where  the  enemy  had  strongly  entrenched  on  a 
wooded  hill,  protected  by  a  ditch  and  hedge,  concealing 
them  from  view.  They  were  furiously  attacked  by  General 
Whiting's  division,  composed  of  his  own  brigade,  Hood's 
Texas  brigade,  Pettigru's  of  South  Carolina,  Hatton's,  and 
Colonel  Hampton's  brigade. 

It  was  now  nearly  dark,  but  the  firing  was  tremendous. 
The  musketry  was  not  of  the  popping  order,  but  regular 
and  long-continued  rolls,  sounding  very  much  like  a  tor- 
nado sweeping  through  a  forest.  This  was  the  most  terrific 
firing  I  had  heard  during  the  day ;  but  while  we  listened, 
it  suddenly  ceased  entirely.  Night  had  come,  and  it  was 
evident  that  the  combat  was  over.  I  told  Mr.  Ewell  that 
if  it  was  not  taxing  his  time  and  patience  too  far,  I  wished 
him  to  ride  with  me  back  to  the  entrenchments  to  see  how 
things  looked  at  the  close  of  the  engagements.  He  con- 
sented, and  we  kept  on  till  we  reached  the  enemy's  camp. 
There  I  learned  that  General  D.  H.  Hill  was  making  him- 
self comfortable,  having  taken  possession  of  everything. 
Dismounting,  I  gave  my  horse  to  Mr.  Ewell,  and  got  over 
the  fence,  and  crossed  the  field  until  I  came  to  the  tent 
w'here  General  Hill  was.  He  was  standing  outside,  near 
a  camp-fire,  talking  to  an  officer. 

My  interview  with  him  was  quite  amusing  at  the  begin- 
ning. Said  I,  "Good  evening.  General !"  Without  looking 
at  me,  he  gruffly  answered,  "Wait,  I  can't  talk  to  but  one 
man  at  a  time."    "Who  wants  you  talk  to  more  than  one  at 


i62  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

a  time?''  I  responded.  Presently  he  turned  to  me  and 
said,  "Now,  what  do  you  want?  What  you  have  to  say, 
say  quick."  I  rephed,  "I  shall  say  what  I  want  to  say  at 
my  leisure."  He  looked  at  me  keenly  to  see  who  was  so 
impudent,  when,  recognizing  me,  he  gave  me  a  cordial 
welcome,  and  asked  me  to  come  into  the  tent.  He  told  me 
he  wished  I  had  come  sooner,  as  he  had  been  in  great  want 
of  aides,  and  would  have  given  me  something  to  do.  I  told 
him  I  was  sorry  I  had  not  brought  his  little  boy's  ambro- 
type,  which  had  been  sent  to  my  care,  but  would  have  done 
so  had  I  expected  to  meet  him  on  the  field.  He  then  took 
out  two  little  ambrotypes  of  his  daughters,  which  he  said 
he  had  worn  next  to  his  heart.  The  floor  of  the  tent  was 
covered  with  papers.  I  brought  some  of  them  home  with 
me,  thinking  they  might  prove  interesting,  but  they  were 
all  surgeons'  reports,  and  it  was  a  surgeon's  tent  in  which 
we  were.  As  a  relic,  I  brought  away  a  small  portfolio,  and 
one  or  two  other  trifles.  The  General  said  they  had  no- 
thing to  eat,  their  stores  all  having  been  saturated  with 
the  rain  of  the  previous  day.  I  promised  on  my  return  to 
town  to  send  him  something  to  eat,  and  would  if  possible 
get  a  wagon  off  immediately  after  reaching  the  city.  It 
was  then  about  nine  or  half-past  nine  o'clock,  and  we 
started  back. 

Passing  the  temporary  hospital  near  the  roadside,  I  beg- 
ged Mr.  Ewell  to  wait  until  I  could  go  in  and  take  a  look 
at  the  condition  of  things  there.  It  was  a  spectacle  at 
which  angels  might  weep !  No  one  knows  what  war  is 
who  has  not  seen  military  hospitals ;  not  of  the  sick  only, 
but  of  the  cut,  maimed  and  mutilated  in  all  the  ways  in 
which  the  human  body  can  be  dishonored  and  disfigured. 
Inside  the  building,  on  the  floor,  the  men  lay  so  thick  that 
it  was  difficult  to  walk  without  stepping  on  them.  I  asked 
one  of  the  surgeons  if  it  would  be  proper  for  me  to  offer 
prayer  with  the  men.  He  said,  "Certainly,"  if  I  wished  it. 
Accordingly,  I  got  into  the  middle  of  the  room,  took  off 
my  hat,  and  said,  "My  friends,  I  am  a  minister  residing  in 
Richmond ;  I  wish  I  could  be  of  some  use  and  comfort  to 
you ;  but  I  know  not  what  I  can  do  for  you,  unless  it  would 
be  agreeable  to  you  for  me  to  offer  a  short  prayer  for 
you.  Would  you  like  me  to  do  so?"  "Yes,  sir;  yes,  sir; 
if  you  please,  sir,"  was  the  response  all  around.    I  kneeled 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  163 

down  and  prayed  God  to  comfort  them,  give  them  patience 
under  their  sufferings,  spare  their  lives,  bless  those  dear 
to  them,  and  sanctify  to  them  their  present  trials.  To 
these  petitions  some  of  them  audibly  responded,  and  it 
was  affecting  to  observe  that  even  their  groans  were  to  a 
great  degree  suppressed,  and  a  quiet  maintained  beyond 
what  I  supposed  possible  during  the  prayer. 

On  our  ride  back  to  town,  the  scene  which  the  road  pre- 
sented was  one  never  to  be  forgotten.  Artillery  and  bag- 
gage-wagons were  coming  out,  while  ambulances,  hacks, 
buggies,  and  persons  on  horseback,  and  hundreds  on  foot, 
were  going  in.  These,  meeting  in  narrow  places,  blocked 
up  the  way.  Omnibuses  and  other  heavy  vehicles  were 
fast  stuck  in  the  mud,  which  the  drivers  were  trying  to 
prize  out ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the  noise  and  confusion  the 
groans  of  wounded  men,  jolted  and  jerked  about,  could  be 
heard  everywhere. 

I  was  glad  when  the  first  gas-lights  of  the  city  came  in 
view,  fatigued  as  I  was,  covered  with  mud,  and  wet  from 
wading  through  the  swampy  road  after  I  gave  up  my 
horse  to  the  wounded  boy.  I  went  immediately  to  the 
War  Office,  and  found  Secretary  Randolph  still  in  his 
office,  but  just  ready  to  go  to  his  house.  I  gave  him  some 
account  of  what  I  had  seen,  and  asked  him  if  General  Hill 
could  get  a  supply  of  provisions  that  night.  Just  then 
Major  Ruffin,  the  assistant  commissary,  came  in.  He 
promised  to  dispatch  a  wagon  load  of  provisions  at  once. 
I  then  knocked  up  J.  B.  Watkins,  who  had  gone  to  bed, 
and  got  him  to  promise  to  send  another  load  early  in  the 
morning. 

On  reaching  home,  I  found  good  Susan  standing  in  the 
front  door,  watching  and  waiting  for  me.  She  was 
anxious  for  my  return,  but  not  alarmed,  as  some  women 
would  have  been — knowing  I  had  gone  to  the  battle-field. 
Had  I  not  returned  during  the  night,  she  would  have  been 
satisfied  that  I  remained  because  I  saw  some  opportunity 
of  being  useful. 

It  was  a  great  advantage  to  have  gone  with  Colonel 
Ewell.  He  went  to  the  field  to  look  for  General  Johnston, 
intending  to  offer  his  services  as  aide.  We  could  not  find 
him ;  but,  in  looking  for  him,  I  saw  more  and  exposed 
mvself  more  than  I  would  have  done  had  I  gone  alone.    It 


164  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

was  not  as  exciting  to  be  on  a  battle-field  as  I  had  antici- 
pated. I  think  it  produces  about  as  much  awe  as  one  feels 
in  a  heavy  thunderstorm — certainly  not  more. 

Dr.  Hoge  describes  the  battle  as  a  Confederate  victory. 
He  tells  v^hat  he  saw.  The  result  was  really  indecisive,  and 
the  victory  was  claimed  by  both  sides.  The  Prince  de  Join- 
ville  says :  ''Night  put  an  end  to  the  battle.  On  both  sides 
nothing  was  known  of  the  result  of  the  battle  but  what  each 
one  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes." 

The  next  morning  the  conflict  was  renewed,  but  without 
the  skilful  guidance  of  the  Confederate  commander  who  had 
planned  it.  General  Johnston,  for  whom  Colonel  Ewell 
and  Dr.  Hoge  had  searched  in  vain,  had  been  severely 
woimded.  Very  solemn  must  have  been  the  preaching  that 
day  in  the  churches  of  Richmond  with  the  noise  of  the  battle 
that  might  decide  its  fate  reverberating  in  the  distance ;  and 
very  earnest  must  have  been  the  prayers  for  the  wounded 
General,  the  soldiers  at  the  front,  and  the  suffering  men  in 
the  crowded  hospitals. 

On  June  24th,  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  his  wife : 

On  Sunday,  I  preached  in  "the  lines"  on  the  "Nine-Mile 
Road."  Howell  Cobb  and  Thomas  Cobb  have  their  regi- 
ments near  together,  and  Mr.  Flinn  and  Mr.  Porter  united 
their  congregations  for  my  benefit. 

Colonel  Ewell  went  with  me,  and  we  had  a  pleasant  time. 
After  service  we  dined  in  camp.  The  day  was  very  hot ; 
the  ride  to  and  from  town  was  over  twelve  miles,  the  way 
we  went,  and  I  got  back  just  in  time  to  get  to  Camp  Lee 
for  my  afternoon  discourse.  There  I  had  a  large  congrega- 
tion, for  two  regiments  had  just  come  in.  When  I  returned 
home,  I  was  thoroughly  fatigued,  with  a  pain  in  my  head 
from  riding  in  the  hot  sun.  My  horse  was  very  tired  also 
from  having  had  nothing  to  eat  since  early  in  the  morning. 
But  we  both  recruited  on  Monday,  and  to-day  Colonel 
Ewell  and  I  paid  General  Hill  a  visit,  and  took  dinner  with 
him  in  his  camp.  I  also  called  on  General  Garland,  whose 
camp  is  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  General  Hill's. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  165 

I  hope  this  life  out  of  doors  will  improve  me.  If  it 
does  not,  I  do  not  know  what  will. 

The  town  is  now  all  excitement  in  anticipation  of  the 
battle  which  is  expected  to  come  off  to-morrow  or  next 
day.  Jackson  and  Ewell  are  said  to  be  in  Hanover,  ready 
to  strike  McClellan's  army  in  the  flank. 

The  conflict  will  be  tremendous,  but  I  have  no  fears  as  to 
the  result. 

I  think  we  will  utterly  rout  our  enemies,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  and  relieve  Richmond  of  its  long  suspense,  and  of 
the  burden  of  having  two  such  vast  armies  in  its  vicinity, 
consuming  everything  there  is  to  eat.  Should  the  tide  of 
battle  go  against  us,  I  mean  to  fall  back  with  the  army, 
and  I  think  I  will  join  Hill's  division,  either  as  aide  or 
chaplain,  or  both.  But  ii  the  battle  is  well  managed  by 
our  leaders,  I  have  no  fears  as  to  the  result. 

All  my  concern  is  for  the  multitude  who  must  fall,  and 
for  the  number  of  the  wounded  who  will  crowd  our  houses 
and  hospitals. 

Before  another  Sunday  comes  I  think  the  fate  of  Rich- 
mond will  be  decided. 

I  enclose  for  Lacy  his  favorite  story  of  "Zeke."  I  fancy 
him  now,  standing  by  you,  his  mouth  open  and  his  eyes 
glistening.  He  will  make  you  read  it  to  him  every  day. 
I  will  soon  send  him  another.  I  hope  little  Moses  still 
improves.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  hear  that  Bess 
and  Mary  are  so  happy  in  their  studies,  rides  and  visits. 
We  will  all  enjoy  home  when  we  get  together  once  more. 

We  get  on  very  pleasantly  in  our  household  affairs.  Mrs. 
Brown  forgets  nothing,  omits  nothing. 

Tlie  remarkable  elasticity  of  Dr.  Hoge's  mind  is  illus- 
trated in  his  ability  to  turn  from  the  most  solemn  and 
harassing  cares  to  the  lighter  vein  of  a  child's  thoughts  and 
interests.  "Zeke"  was  a  hero  whose  wonderful  adventures, 
and  hair-breadth  escapes,  multiplied  at  will,  gave  intermina- 
ble delight  to  the  little  ones. 

Two  days  later  the  "Seven  Days"  fighting  began,  result- 
ing finally  in  the  withdrawing  of  McClellan  and  the  present 
relief  of  Richmond. 

On  Sunday,  July   13th,  a  stranger  slipped  quietly  into 


1 66  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Dr.  Hoge's  church,  and  at  its  close  sHpped  out  unob- 
served. It  was  the  first  appearance  in  Richmond,  after  his 
great  campaigns,  of  the  then  most  famous  Hving  soldier, 
Stonewall  Jackson,  who  wrote  his  wife  of  the  comfort  and 
privilege  of  a  quiet  Sabbath  once  more  in  the  house  of  God. 
About  this  time  he  gave  Dr.  Hoge  this  remarkable  order : 

Headquarters,  Valley  District,  Near  Richmond. 
Permit  the  bearer,  the  Rev.  Moses  D.  Hoge,  to  pass  at 
pleasure  from  Richmond  to  any  part  of  my  command. 

T.  J.  Jackson,  Major-General. 

The  exhausting  labors  of  the  spring  and  summer  brought 
on  a  severe  attack  of  illness  in  September.  He  went  for 
awhile  to  Prince  Edward  to  recuperate,  but  failing  to  im- 
prove he  returned  home,  finding  himself  more  comfortable 
in  his  own  spacious  rooms. 

Shortly  before  the  war  he  had  moved  into  the  large  house 
adjoining  his  church — previously  mentioned  as  built  by 
Major  Gibbon — and  here  he  lived  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  After  Dr.  Brown  purchased  the  Central  Presby- 
terian, he  came  to  live  with  Dr.  Hoge.  At  this  time  all 
of  Dr.  Hoge's  family  were  away,  and  Mrs.  Brown  kept 
the  house.  Never  did  a  man  have  a  more  devoted  friend,  and 
there  never  lived  a  more  efficient  woman.  Dr.  Hoge  used 
to  say  that  had  she  had  charge  of  the  commissary,  General 
Lee's  army  would  never  have  lacked  and  never  surrendered. 

During  his  illness  he  wrote  his  brother : 

This  confinement  to  my  chamber  when  there  is  so  much 
work  to  do  is  good  discipline  to  my  impatient  spirit.  I 
have  much  to  be  thankful  for,  especially  for  the  kindness 
my  people  have  shown  me.  I  have  been  honored,  too,  by 
some  distinguished  visitors.  Vice-President  Stephens  has 
frequently  been  to  see  me,  and  this  morning  General  Jo- 
seph E.  Johnston  came  and  sat  an  hour  with  me.  He  is 
every  inch  a  soldier,  and  a  noble-hearted  man.  I  don't  say 
he  is  the  host,  but  he  is  one  of  the  most  lovable  of  our 
generals. 


At  the  Confederate  Capital.  167 

General  Johnston  was  Iwrn  in  Prince  Edward,  very  near 
Dr.  Hoge's  birthplace,  and  they  continued  friends  until 
the  General's  death,  when  Dr.  Hoge  paid  a  noble  tribute 
to  his  memory.  Colonel  EwelP  was  another  friend  of  his 
Prince  Edward  days,  having  been  a  professor  at  Hampden- 
Sidney  while  he  was  at  the  Theological  Seminary.  His 
daughter  become  almost  a  member  of  Dr.  Hoge's  family, 
and  his  brother.  General  Ewell,  an  intimate  friend  and  con- 
stant visitor.  Mr.  Stephens  spent  many  quiet  evenings  at 
Dr.  Hoge's,  to  the  great  interest  of  the  whole  family;  "in 
the  midst  of  a  face  of  parchment,  all  the  vitality  of  his 
brain  would  glow  in  his  eyes,  which  shone  like  coals  of  fire 
when  speaking  on  some  subject  of  importance."  Colonel 
Lamar  spent  months  as  a  guest  at  Dr.  Hoge's,  who  thus  knew 
him  under  all  the  varying  shades  of  his  highly  emotional 
nature.  During  the  sessions  of  Congress,  Judge  James  M. 
Baker,  of  Florida,  was  a  resident  in  his  house;  a  devoted 
Presbyterian  elder  and  a  man  of  the  highest  dignity  of  char- 
acter. Secretary  Seddon  was  another  warm  friend,  who 
afterwards  showed  Dr.  Hoge  extraordinary  kindness.  With 
Mr.  Davis  and  all  his  Cabinet  he  was  on  the  most  cordial 
terms;  but  these,  with  Mr.  Benjamin,  were  among  his 
most  intimate  friends.  General  Jackson  when  in  Richmond 
was  a  member  of  his  congregation,  and  Dr.  Hoge's  house 
was  like  a  home  to  him  and  his  wife.  It  was  there  that  she 
learned  of  the  General's  wound.  With  General  Lee  his 
friendship  was  close  and  personal,  and  grew  until  the  great 
chieftain  finished  his  course. 

Character  developed  and  revealed  itself  in  times  like  these, 
and  souls  were  welded  together  in  the  fiery  trial  as  is  seldom 
possible  in  the  more  conventional  relations  of  peaceful  times, 
and,  to  his  dying  day,  Dr.  Hoge  cherished  among  the  most 
grateful  memories  of  his  life  his  association  with  these  great 
souls. 

^  Afterwards  president  of  William  and  Mary  College. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Mission  to  England. 
1863. 

"And  then  consider  the  great  historical  fact  that,  for  three  centuries,  this 
book  has  been  woven  into  the  life  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  English 
history." — Huxley. 

"There  is  but  one  book." — Sir  Walter  Scott. 

IMPORTANT  as  the  services  of  Dr.  Hoge  had  thus  far 
been  to  his  people  under  the  Confederacy,  a  yet  greater 
work  was  in  store  for  him.  In  his  work  at  Camp  Lee  and  in 
the  hospitals  he  was  impressed  with  the  fearful  destitution 
of  Bibles  and  other  religious  literature  among  the  soldiers. 
He  made  appeals  to  Nashville,  Charleston  and  other  cities, 
and  to  the  people  of  Virginia,  to  send  Bibles  from  their 
homes.  The  Virginia  Bible  Society  and  other  organizations 
were  making  every  effort  to  supply  the  increasing  demand, 
but  in  vain.  While  it  is  now  known  that  the  American  Bible 
Society  was  willing  to  make  grants,  it  was  not  known  at  the 
South,  and  the  military  authorities  had  granted  as  yet  no 
permission  for  even  Bibles  to  pass  the  lines. 

Under  these  conditions,  Dr.  William  Hoge,  after  several 
nights  spent  in  anxious  thought  and  prayer,  addressed  the 
following  letter  to  his  brother,  and  wrote  to  the  same  effect 
to  Dr.  Dabney,  and  perhaps  to  others :  ^ 

Charlottesville,  Saturday,  December  13,  1862. 

My  Dear  Brother:  In  my  note  to  Dr.  Brown  a  few 
days  ago,  I  mentioned  that  I  had  something  to  write  to  you 
about,  in  which  my  heart  is  greatly  interested.    Let  me  tell 

^  The  main  body  of  the  letter  as  printed  is  taken  from  the  copy  ad- 
dressed to  Dr.  Dabney,  which,  being  written  last,  is  a  little  more  finished 
in  some  details.  The  beginning  and  ending  are  from  the  copy  addressed 
to  his  brother. 


Mission  to  England.  169 

you  about  it  briefly  and  simply  as  I  can,  and  then  get  your 
counsel,  and  if  you  approve,  your  help. 

I  wish  to  lay  before  the  Christians  of  Great  Britain  an 
appeal  for  a  ship-load  of  Bibles,  Testaments,  tracts,  and 
such  religious  pubHcations  as  are  best  adapted  for  army 
circulation. 

My  letter  would  set  forth  something  of  our  terrible 
privations  and  sufferings,  but  give  them  distinctly  to  under- 
stand that  our  people  neither  murmur  nor  grow  faint- 
hearted, but  as  to  these  things  seek  help  from  God  alone. 

I  would  tell  them  of  our  Bible  Society  and  tract  so- 
cieties; of  their  promptness  and  zeal;  of  the  difficulties 
against  which  they  contend,  and  of  their  great  success  in 
immediately  creating  and  diffusing  a  wholesome  and  stir- 
ring religious  literature. 

I  would  tell  them,  however,  that  the  demand  greatly 
■exceeds  the  supply,  because  of  the  vast  numbers  who  need 
our  aid,  and  of  the  rapid  destruction  incident  to  books  and 
tracts  in  an  army  incessantly  moving,  fighting,  etc. 

I  would  dwell  on  the  eagerness  of  our  soldiers  to  get 
something  to  read ;  how  they  are  often  seen  poring  over 
an  old,  badly  printed  newspaper,  devouring  the  very  ad- 
vertisements (so  ready  is  the  soil  for  the  seed),  and  how 
they  are  yet  more  eager  for  truth  unto  salvation,  truth  in 
Jesus,  and  especially  the  blessed  gospels  of  our  Lord.  How 
often  have  poor  wounded  and  sick  men  lifted  themselves 
up  from  their  cots,  and  asked  me  if  I  could  give  them  a 
Testament. 

I  would  remind  them  that,  while  our  contributions  had 
ever  poured  in  freely  to  the  treasuries  of  the  American 
Bible  Society  and  Tract  Society,  this  cruel  blockade  had 
cut  us  off,  not  only  from  food  for  our  hunger  and  medi- 
cines for  our  sickness  (though  we  constantly  give  largely 
of  our  scanty  stock,  of  medicines  especially,  to  their  sick 
and  wounded  prisoners),  but  from  the  very  word  of  God; 
the  bread  of  life  eternal,  the  remedies  of  the  gospel  of 
salvation ;  that,  while  our  enemies  profess  to  be  appalled  at 
our  wickedness,  they  will  not  give  us  even  a  leaf  from  the 
tree  of  life  to  save  from  perdition  the  souls  of  the  men 
whom  they  seek  to  exterminate. 

I  would  remind  them  that  this  appeal  is  no  further 
founded  on  the  righteousness  which  we  claim  for  our  cause 


170  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

than  to  propose  th'is  dilemma:  If  our  cause  is  righteous- 
(as  all  good  and  holy  and  God-fearing  men  among  us  de- 
voutly believe),  and  an  innocent  nation  thus  patiently 
endures  such  sufferings  and  wrongs,  and,  while  its  heritage 
is  turned  into  a  desert  and  its  very  life  blood  is  streaming, 
yet  lifts  up  no  cry  to  the  other  nations  of  the  earth  for  aid 
in  the  bitter  conflict,  but  simply  asks  of  Christian  men  and 
women  to  hold  up  before  our  eyes,  dim  with  tears  and 
growing  dark  in  death,  the  blessed  pages  of  God's  word, 
then  surely  such  an  appeal  should  meet  a  quick  and  gener- 
ous response  from  all  whom  the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth ;  while,  if  we  are  wrong  and  as  vile  as  our 
enemies  paint  us,  our  appeal  for  the  word  of  God  urges 
itself  on  Christian  love  with  yet  greater  power. 

Would  it  be  proper  to  say  that  we  would  joyfully  pur- 
chase such  a  cargo,  while  yet,  if  it  is  their  preference  to 
give  it  for  Christ's  sake,  we  will  for  His  sake  freely  receive 
what  they  freely  give? 

Would  it  be  indelicate  to  remind  them  that  when  Ireland 
cried  out,  by  reason  of  sore  famine,  ships  loaded  with  bread 
sailed  for  her  relief  from  Southern  ports?  If  sending  such 
a  ship  should  prove  a  work  of  peril,  are  there  not  stout- 
hearted British  sailors  who,  for  the  love  of  souls  and  the 
sake  of  Christ,  would  brave  what  so  many  constantly 
brave  for  private  gain? 

But  could  there  be  danger?  Is  it  credible  that  our  foe 
could  fire  into  such  a  vessel? 

This  is  a  rapid  and  crude  outline.  Before  filling  it  up, 
I  want  your  advice  and  every  good  suggestion  you  can  add. 
I  want  also  to  know  to  zvhom  I  had  better  write  before 
giving  it  shape.  To  Mr.  Mason,  letting  him  bring  it  out 
as  he  deems  best  before  the  British  church  at  large?  To 
Strahan  and  Company,  Edinboro,  who  have  published 
probably  some  forty  thousand  copies  of  Blind  Bartimeus,. 
and  so  have  some  knowledge  of  me?  To  some  great  ad- 
vocate of  our  cause  in  Parliament?  To  some  influential 
and  godly  nobleman?  To  one  or  both  of  these  great  so- 
cieties (the  Bible  and  Tract)  ?  I  feel  a  good  deal  at  a  loss 
on  this  point. 

Take  counsel,  my  dear  brother,  with  such  gentlemen  in 

.  the  Church  and  State  as  you  may  think  best,  and  let  me 

know  the  result  as  soon  as  you  can.    No  time  ought  to  be- 


Mission  to  England.  171 

lost.  I  have  before  me  a  good  part  of  a  letter  to  you  writ- 
ten more  than  a  month  ago.  It  expresses  a  good  deal  of 
discouragement,  because  I  seem  to  have  been  so  little  useful 
to  the  Confederacy,  after  all  my  longing  over  it  from  afar, 
and  since  coming  into  it.  But  if  God  has  put  this  plan  inta 
my  heart,  and  will  suffer  me  to  see  it  accomplished,  I  think 
I  shall  praise  him  forever. 

The  suggestion  was  hailed  with  delight  by  Dr.  Hoge  and 
those  whom  he  consulted,  but  he  saw  that  a  personal  repre- 
sentative could  accomplish  far  more  than  a  letter.  A  swift 
steamer  was  preparing  to  sail  from  Charleston,  and  Dr. 
Hoge  made  his  preparations  to  go,  unless  his  brother,  who 
had  proposed  the  scheme,  would  undertake  it.  He  was  sum- 
moned to  Richmond  by  telegram  and  promptly  consented  to 
go,  but  a  telegram  from  Charleston  announcing  the  near 
sailing  of  the  steamer  did  not  give  him  the  necessary  time  to 
return  to  Charlottesville  and  make  his  arrangements.  The 
managers  of  the  Virginia  Bible  Society  met  that  day,  accred- 
ited Dr.  Hoge  to  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  and 
authorized  the  purchase  of  Bibles  on  their  account.  In  a 
few  hours  Dr.  Hoge  was  on  his  way  to  Charleston. 

The  following  account  was  given  in  the  Central  Presby- 
terian at  the  time : 

Mission  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hoge  to  England. 

Two  weeks  ago  the  Rev.  Dr.  Willliam  J.  Hoge,  of  Char- 
lottesville, Va.,  suggested  to  his  brother  in  Richmond  the 
scheme  of  a  letter  he  had  thought  of  addressing  to  Chris- 
tians in  Great  Britain.  The  object  was  to  appeal  to  them 
for  Bibles  and  Testaments,  chiefly  for  the  supply  of  our 
army.  The  plan  was  to  have  them  run  through  the  block- 
ade. This  suggestion,  when  made  known  to  others,  met 
with  much  favor ;  but  upon  farther  consideration,  it  was 
thought  that  if  some  suitable  person  could  make  a  visit  to 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  still  better  results  would 
probably  be  secured.  Brethren  of  all  denominations  in 
Richmond  gave  the  proposal  their  warmest  approbation, 
and  members  of  the  Cabinet    (acting,  of  course,   unoffi- 


172  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

cially)  extended  to  it  at  once  a  hearty  and  valuable  sup- 
port. 

The  matter  seemed  to  require  haste,  for  an  opportunity 
would  be  offered  in  a  few  days  of  running  the  blockade  in 
one  of  the  swiftest  vessels  on  the  ocean.  For  this  and 
other  reasons  no  time  was  to  be  lost.  Not  to  enter  into 
details,  it  is  enough  to  state  that  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter  was  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Moses  D.  Hoge,  of 
Richmond,  undertook  this  most  important  mission.  Within 
a  few  hours  after  his  determination  to  go  was  settled,  he 
was  on  his  way.  Information  has  just  reached  us  that  he 
has  sailed  from  our  shores — when,  or  from  what  port,  need 
not  be  mentioned.  We  trust  it  was  from  the  right  place,  in 
the  right  ship,  at  the  right  time.  If  no  evil  has  befallen 
him,  he  is  now  beyond  the  reach  of  our  enemy. 

The  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Virginia  Bible  Society 
were  called  together  the  day  before  Dr.  Hoge's  departure, 
and  cordially  approving  the  scheme,  appointed  him  their 
delegate  to  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  and 
authorized  him  to  procure  thirty-five  thousand  Bibles  and 
Testaments  on  their  account.  In  response  to  a  telegram, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  R.  Wilson,  of  Augusta,  Ga.,  chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Confederate  Bible  So- 
ciety, replied  that  they  would  give  the  enterprise  a  cordial 
support.  Responses  to  the  same  effect  were  received  from 
Columbia  and  elsewhere.  "And  Hezekiah  rejoiced  and  all 
the  people,  that  God  had  prepared  the  people :  for  the  thing 
was  done  suddenly."  There  is  reason  to  hope  that  the 
same  is  true  in  this  case. 

We  shall  resume  this  matter  next  week.  In  the  mean- 
while let  all  who  love  the  Bible  pray  that  our  beloved 
brother  may  have  a  "prosperous  voyage  by  the  will  of 
God,"  a  successful  mission  and  a  safe  return,  and  that  by 
it  all,  "the  word  of  the  Lord  may  have  free  course  and  be 
glorified." 

Just  before  sailing  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  his  brother : 

Charleston,  December  27,  1862. 
Dear  Brother  :    After  being  detained  until  now,  be- 
cause  the   weather   was   too   fine   to   attempt   to   run   the 
blockade,  a  rainstorm  has  come  up,  and  we  have  orders  to 
get  aboard. 


Mission  to  England.  173 

The  perils  of  the  attempt  are  greater  than  I  had 
imagined.  The  captain  has  orders  never  to  surrender  the 
vessel,  and  in  case  he  is  so  hemmed  in  as  to  be  unable  to 
escape,  to  scuttle  or  burn  her ;  and  then  the  passengers  and 
crew  will  have  to  take  the  boats,  and  get  ashore  the  best 
way  they  can,  and  when  they  can,  or  be  captured. 

Do  not  let  Susan  know  this.  I  have  not  told  her  of  the 
risk  I  am  running. 

I  am  cheerful  and  hopeful ;  but  the  voyage  is  long  and 
boisterous,  and  it  may  be  that  I  shall  never  return. 

My  heart  goes  out  in  unutterable  longing  to  my  dear 
wife  and  children,  and  when  I  think  of  them,  I  almost 
waver.  But  it  is  not  my  nature  to  turn  back,  and  I  trust 
it  is  not  God's  will  that  I  should. 

I  expect  to  make  the  voyage  in  safety,  and  get  home 
again,  but  in  case  I  do  not,  dear  brother,  be  assured  of  my 
unspeakable  love  to  you,  and  aid  Susan  as  far  as  you  can 
in  the  religious  training,  especially  of  my  darling  little 
boys.  My  solicitude  is  chiefly  for  them,  and  that  they  may 
be  ministers  of  Christ  on  earth,  and  be  saved  in  heaven. 

My  best  love  to  Virginia  and  your  precious  children. 

Pray  for  me  constantly,  and  may  God  bless  you  forever ! 

M.  D.  H. 

To  Dr.  Brown  he  vv^rote  to  the  same  effect,  adding  these 
further  particulars : 

The  steamer  which  will  attempt  to  run  the  blockade  to- 
morrow (Saturday)  night  is  the  Herald,  or,  as  she  will  be 
called  on  her  next  trip,  the  Antonica.  She  is  commanded 
by  Captain  L.  M.  Coxetter,  a  very  able  and  resolute  sea- 
man, who  has  been  very  fortunate  in  running  the  blockade 
so  often  without  capture.  But  the  vigilance  of  the  enemy 
has  increased,  and  there  are  now  thirteen  Federal  steamers 
guarding  the  harbor,  so  that  it  is  more  than  usually  difficult 
to  get  out. 

Going  on  an  errand  of  this  kind,  Dr.  Hoge  of  course  took 
pains  to  be  well  introduced.  Two  of  the  letters  that  he 
carried  with  him  are  interesting  on  account  of  the  writers, 
the  persons  addressed,  and  the  terms  in  which  they  charac- 
terize Dr.  Hoge's  mission : 


174  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Confederate  States  of  America, 
Department  of  State, 
Richmond,  22d  December,  1862. 

To  George  C.  Peahody,  Esq.,  London: 

Dear  Sir  :  Although  we  may  be  far  separated  by  po- 
litical causes,  I  trust  I  do  not  mistake  your  nature  when 
expressing  my  conviction  that  you  will  receive  with  kind- 
ness my  introduction  to  you  of  the  Rev.  Moses  D.  Hoge, 
of  this  city,  who  leaves  for  England  on  a  mission  of  phil- 
anthropy. 

Mr.  Hoge,  who  is  one  of  our  most  eloquent  and  accom- 
plished divines,  devotes  himself  to  the  effort  to  supply  to 
our  Sunday-schools  and  camps  books  of  religious  instruc- 
tion, which  our  own  press  is  now  unable  to  furnish  in  con- 
sequence of  the  vast  diversion  of  peaceful  labor  from  its 
ordinary  pursuits. 

As  Mr.  Hoge  may  need  your  advice  and  counsel  in 
carrying  out  his  purpose,  I  appeal  for  them  without  hesi- 
tation, and  recommend  him  to  your  habitual  and  uniform 
courtesy  toward  all  gentlemen  of  merit  from  this  side  of 
the  water.      I  am 

Yours  very  truly  and  respectfully, 

JuDAH  P.  Benjamin. 

The  second  was  from  the  learned  and  eloquent  Dr.  Smyth, 
of  Charleston,  and  was  addressed  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  James 
Hamilton,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Binney,  and  other  ministers : 

Charleston,  S.  C,  December  26,  1862. 

Reverend  and  Honored  Brethren  in  the  Lord  :  This 
will,  if  God  convey  him  safely  through  the  perils  of  war 
and  of  the  sea,  introduce  a  most  zealous  and  faithful  min- 
ister of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hoge,  of  Richmond,  Va., 
whose  praise  is  in  all  our  churches,  and  who  will  be  his  own 
best  commendation.  He  can  interest  you  and  your  people 
much  by  recounting  the  wonderful  works  of  God  for  us, 
and  through  us,  as  a  people,  and  you  will,  I  know,  heartily 
further  his  special  mission  by  securing  for  him  the  favor 
of  all  who  can  enable  him  to  accomplish  much  for  the  cir- 
culation of  the  Scriptures. 

With  great  consideration  and  regard,  I  remain,  with 
;grateful  recollection  of  your  personal  kindness, 

Very  sincerely  yours,  Thomas  Smyth. 


Mission  to  England.  175 

But  Dr.  Hoge's  best  introduction,  and  the  one  that  proved 
of  the  most  immediate  and  practical  value  to  his  mission,  was 
the  personal  friendship  and  active  cooperation  of  James  M. 
Mason.  Though  never  officially  recognized  by  the  govern- 
ment, yet  the  honorable  family  from  which  he  sprang,  his 
own  distinguished  public  career  and  high  personal  qualities, 
and  the  extraordinary  international  interest  aroused  by  his 
illegal  capture  and  detention  by  the  Federal  authorities,  had 
already  secured  him  a  high  social  and  personal  recognition. 
Among  those  to  whom  he  introduced  Dr.  Hoge  was  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  who  at  once  secured  him  a  hearing  before  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

The  incidents  of  his  voyage  and  the  story  of  his  success 
are  told  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf : 

3  Clarence  Terrace,  Regent's  Park,  London, 

March  6,  1862. 

My  Dear  Sister:  You  all  seem  like  near  neighbors  to 
me  now  that  intercourse  is  again  possible.  I  came  abroad 
with  reluctance  on  many  accounts.  It  was  painful  to  leave 
my  dear  wife  and  children  during  the  privations  and  un- 
certainties of  war ;  trying  to  leave  my  congregation  and 
camp  when  there  was  so  much  to  do  in  both ;  but  I  hoped 
to  accomplish  more  good  by  coming  than  I  could  by  re- 
maining ;  and  my  friends,  because  of  my  long  residence  in 
Richmond  and  extensive  acquaintance  through  the  South, 
and  personal  knowledge  of  the  leading  generals  of  the 
army,  and  with  the  spiritual  wants  of  our  soldiers  and 
people,  thought  I  would  be  a  suitable  person  to  come 
abroad  and  represent  our  cause  before  the  religious  public 
of  England.  Goodness  and  mercy  have  followed  me  all 
the  way.  Our  run  through  the  blockading  sqviadron  was 
glorious.  I  was  in  one  of  the  severest  and  bloodiest  battles 
fought  near  Richmond ;  but  it  was  not  more  exciting  than 
that  midnight  adventure,  when,  amid  lowering  clouds  and 
dashes  of  rain,  and  just  wind  enough  to  get  up  sufficient 
commotion  in  the  sea  to  drown  the  noise  of  our  paddle 
wheels,  we  darted  along,  with  lights  all  extinguished,  and 
not  even  a  cigar  burning  on  the  deck,  until  we  were  safely 
out,  and  free  from  the  Federal  fleet. 


176  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

In  Nassau  we  chartered  a  little  twenty-ton  schooner^ 
hired  a  crew  of  negroes,  and  made  a  fine  run  to  Havana,, 
where  we  got  on  the  Royal  Mail  Steamship  Line  to  St. 
Thomas,  and  so  to  Southampton.  In  Nassau,  some  gen- 
tlemen, learning  my  errand  to  England,  got  together  and 
agreed  to  send  several  cases  of  Bibles  and  Testaments  to- 
Virginia  at  once,  which  I  have  since  learned  they  did.^ 
Soon  after  I  came  to  London,  I  addressed  the  Committee 
(or  Board  of  Managers,  thirty-six  in  number)  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  and,  in  a  speech  of  half 
an  hour's  length  (Lord  Shaftesbury  in  the  chair),  set 
forth  our  inability  in  the  Confederacy  to  provide  ourselves 
with  an  adequate  supply  of  religious  literature,  in  conse- 
quence of  scarcity  of  paper  and  all  the  materials  for  print- 
ing and  binding,  and  because  all  the  industrial  energies  of 
the  Confederacy  were  devoted  to  the  great  work  of  self- 
defence.  I  gave  an  account  of  the  heroic  manner  in  which 
our  people  had  borne  all  the  hardships  and  bereavements  of 
the  war;  of  their  inflexible  determination  to  succeed;  of 
the  religious  character  of  our  leading  generals ;  of  the 
eagerness  of  the  soldiers  to  obtain  copies  of  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures; and  ended  by  asking  permission  to  purchase,  on 
credit  (until  exchange  was  equalized),  ten  thousand  Bibles 
and  twenty-five  thousand  Testaments;  but,  after  a  short 
consultation,  Lord  Shaftesbury  announced  to  me  that  the 
committee  had  resolved  to  make  me  a  grant  of  ten  thousand 
Bibles,  fifty  thousand  Testaments  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  "portions" — Psalms  and  Gospels.^  I  have 
made  two  addresses  since,  one  before  the  Religious  Tract 
Society,  and  the  other  before  the  Sunday-school  people, 
with  good  success.  I  have  still  much  to  do,  and  if  I  am 
but  the  honored  instrument  of  sending  back  a  large  supply 
of  Bibles,  and  such  books  as  may  confirm  the  faith  of  the 
pious,  comfort  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  lead  sinners  to 
Christ,  for  the  use  of  my  countrymen  so  nobly  battling  in 
the  sacred  cause  of  liberty  and  independence,  I  shall  feel 
that  this  has  been  one  of  the  most  blessed  eras  of  my  life, 
and  shall  ever  be  grateful  for  it. 

*  Amounting  to  1,232  Bibles  and  Testaments — a  liberal  contribution 
from  so  small  a  place. 

*  These  portions  were  bound  in  glazed  covers,  with  rounded  corners 
and  red  edges — "just  the  thing  to  put  in  the  pocket  of  a  soldier."  The 
value  of  this  whole  grant  was  £4,000. 


'  Mission  to  England.  177 

While  Lord  Shaftesbury  personally  informed  Dr.  Hoge 
of  the  result,  such  was  his  interest  in  the  matter  that  he  at 
once  dropped  the  following  note  to  Mr.  Mason  : 

House  of  Lords,  February  i6,  1863. 
Dear  Mr.  Mason  :    We  have  made  the  grant  to  Dr. 
Hoge,  and,  indeed,  we  made  one  double  of  that  which  he 
requested. 

I  should  be  very  glad  to  see  Dr.  Hoge;    I  could  assist 
him  much,  I  think,  in  obtaining  large  supplies  of  tracts. 
Your  obedient  servant,  Shaftesbury. 

As  the  result  of  his  address  before  the  Committee  of  the 
Religious  Tract  Society,  referred  to  in  his  letter  to  Mrs. 
Greenleaf,  he  received  the  following  kind  note  from  Mr.  J. 
Gurney,  M.  P.  The  amount  of  the  grant  referred  to  was 
£300. 

26  Abingdon  Street,  Westminster,  S.  W.,  20  Feb.,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  return  enclosed  the  letter  you  were  so 
good  as  to  leave  for  me  at  the  Tract  Society. 

Our  sub-committee  felt  great  satisfaction  in  recom- 
mending to  the  General  Committee  a  grant  of  publications 
for  the  use  of  your  soldiers.  You  will  perhaps  have  heard 
from  Dr.  Davis  on  the  subject.  If  not,  you  will  very 
shortly. 

Any  evening  that  you  would  like  to  go  into  the  House  of 
Parliament  I  would  be  happy  to  get  you  in,  etc.,  etc. 

Yours  very  sincerely,  J.  Gurney. 

Lord  Shaftesbury,  hearing  of  his  success  with  the  Tract 
Society,  wrote  him  a  note  of  congratulation,  suggesting  yet 
further  aid. 

Grosvenor  Square,  24  W.,  March  2,  1863. 

Dear  Dr.  Hoge  :  I  am  rejoiced  to  hear  of  your  success. 
Pray  write  again  to  Mr.  Smithies  to  Paternoster  Row,  or 
see  him.    He  will  obtain  for  you  many  of  the  Dublin  tracts. 
Your  obedient  servant,  Shaftesbury. 

The  friendship  of  this  good  Earl  was  one  of  the  most 
highly  prized  memories  of  Dr.  Hoge's  life,  and  was  renewed 


178  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

from  time  to  time  on  his  visits  to  London.  Among  the 
great  multitudes  that  will  rise  up  at  the  last  day  to  call  him 
blessed,  none  will  have  more  reason  for  grateful  testimony 
than  the  Confederate  soldier. 

To  his  brother  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  (March  26th)  : 

You  have  heard  of  the  success  with  which  it  has  pleased 
God  to  crown  my  efforts.  His  good  hand  has  been  con- 
spicuous in  all  the  incidents  of  my  voyage,  and  of  my  move- 
ments since  I  landed.  He  has  raised  up  for  me  a  host  of 
friends,  and  has  enabled  me,  as  I  trust,  to  aid  our  cause  in 
more  ways  than  one.  Few  Americans  have  been  honored 
with  more  attention  in  London,  and  few  have  seen  as  much 
as  I  have  done  of  social  and  domestic  life  here.  I  dine  out 
by  invitation  nearly  every  night,  and  these  entertainments 
being  at  the  houses  of  people  of  wealth  and  high  social 
position,  I  am  thus  enabled  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 
people  whom  it  is  worth  while  to  know,  and  worth  while  to 
influence. 

After  repeating  substantially  what  he  had  written  to  Mrs. 
Greenleaf,  he  proceeds : 

I  dined  with  Mr.  Mason  evening  before  last.  He  has 
been  exceedingly  attentive  and  kind  to  me.  When  I  am  at 
these  sumptuous  banquets,  one  thought  frequently  damps 
my  joy  in  the  midst  of  the  splendor,  luxury  and  profusion, 
that  so  many  of  my  brave  countrymen  are  enduring  the 
privations  of  camp  life — often  needing  bread — and  so 
many  of  our  most  refined  women,  all  their  lives  accustomed 
to  abundance,  are  now  absolutely  straitened  for  the  neces- 
sities of  life ;  and  this  thought  comes  over  me  so  vividly  at 
these  rich  banquets  that  I  experience  a  depression  of  spirits 
which  I  can  scarcely  rally  from.  I  feel  the  war  here  more 
than  I  did  at  home,  for  there  I  could  at  least  share  in  the 
privations  of  my  own  people,  and  could  do  something  to 
cheer  and  encourage  those  whose  circumstances  were  in- 
ferior to  my  own.  On  this  account,  I  am  impatient  to  get 
back,  though  were  not  our  country  invaded,  I  would  re- 
main here  three  months  longer.  I  have  had  a  splendid 
offer  within  a  few  days — one  which  would  carry  me  all 


Mission  to  England.  179 

over  Northern  Europe,  on  an  honorable  mission,  too,^  and 
enable  me  to  see  the  very  capitals  and  countries  I  have  long 
desired  to  visit,  and  all  this  without  a  cent  of  cost  to  my- 
self ;  you  know  my  luck  in  these  matters.  I  often  think 
of  what  our  dear  mother  used  to  say,  that  I  was  born  with 
a  golden  spoon  in  my  mouth.  So  it  has  been  in  some 
things  at  least ;  and  few  have  more  reason  than  I  have  for 
gratitude  and  obedience,  because  of  the  temporal  mercies 
which  have  been  showered  on  me.  One  of  the  pleasantest 
incidents  of  my  stay  in  London  has  been  the  visit  of  a 
month  I  have  made  to  Mr.  Reid.  He  and  his  wife  came  to 
my  lodgings  in  Torrington  Square,  and  so  kindly  pressed 
me  to  come  and  take  up  my  abode  with  them  that  I  con- 
sented. Mrs.  Reid,  as  you  know,  is  a  daughter  of  Dr. 
Cochran,  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Reid  formerly  lived  in 
Norfolk.  I  am  going  to  Glasgow  to-morrow  morning,  and 
this  ends  my  pleasant  stay  at  this  house. 

Should  any  unexpected  difficulty  in  running  the  block- 
ade, sickness,  or  any  other  unanticipated  event,  detain  me 
here,  I  want  you  to  preach  for  me  asYnuch  as  you  can. 

Mr.  Reid  desires  to  be  afifectionately  remembered  to 
you.  To  Sister  Virginia  and  your  dear  children  I  send  my 
love,  and  I  assure  you  of  the  tender  and  strong  affection 
of  your  brother,  Moses. 

Among  the  many  outstanding  people  that  Dr.  Hoge  met 
at  this  time,  the  most  interesting  acquaintance  that  he  made 
was  with  Thomas  Carlyle.  Carlyle,  with  his  strong  views 
of  the  Divine  right  of  the  Able-man  to  rule,  had  little 
sympathy  with  the  abolition  movement,  and  took  a  deep 
interest  in  the  Confederate  cause.  He  made  a  characteristic 
note  about  him  in  his  journal,  emphasizing  especially  his 
"veracity,"  and  frequently  sent  messages  to  him  in  after 

^  This  was  a  proposition  from  Colonel  Lamar  to  accompany  him  to 
St.  Petersburgh  (to  which  he  had  been  sent  to  represent  the  Confederate 
government)  to  aid  him  in  getting  recognition  for  the  Confederacy.  He 
did  not  go  to  St.  Petersburgh,  nor  did  Colonel  Lamar;  but  he  spent  a 
few  weeks  with  him  in  Paris,  endeavoring  to  get  an  audience  with  the 
Emperor,  but  in  vain.  It  was  probably  a  knowledge  of  this  that  made 
his  capture  a  special  object  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  authorities. 


i8o  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

years.     Dr.  Hoge  did  not  fail,  as  usual,  to  turn  the  conver- 
sation to  spiritual  things.^ 

Besides  the  grants  made  by  the  societies  in  London,  Dr. 
Hoge  was  busy  procuring  special  publications  for  the  Con- 
federate public  with  the  means  that  were  placed  at  his  dis- 
posal for  this  purpose.  The  Presbyterians  of  Richmond  and 
Virginia  raised  so  much  more  than  their  proportion  of  the 
amount  promised  by  the  Virginia  Bible  Society  that  those 
in  charge  of  the  collections,  after  paying  in  to  the  Bible  So- 
ciety nearly  half  of  the  whole  amount  it  was  to  raise,  placed 
the  rest  in  Dr.  Hoge's  hands  to  use  as  he  saw  fit.  This  was 
supplemented  by  other  contributions,  of  which  the  following 
note  gives  a  specimen : 

4  Crosby  Square,  April  7,  1863. 
My  Dear  Dr.  Hoge:  Many  engagements  have  pre- 
vented my  calling  upon  you,  as  I  ought  to  have  done.  My 
brother  has  mentioned  to  me  your  wish  to  dispose  of  some 
Confederate  eight  per  cent,  bonds  at  sixty.  As  a  matter 
of  business,  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  help  you  to  anything 
like  such  a  price  for  them,  as,  at  the  present  rate  of  ex- 
change in  Richmond,  the  bonds  at  par  in  Confederate 
money  would  not  stand  in  here  more  than  about  thirty  per 
cent. 

Will  you,  however,  allow  my  brother  and  myself  to 
testify  our  appreciation  of  the  noble  object  of  your  mission 
here  by  a  donation  of  two  hundred  pounds  towards  its 
funds?  Yours  sincerely,  John  Gilliad. 

With  these  funds  were  issued  series  of  tracts  gotten  up 
with  the  Confederate  battle  flag  on  the  cover,  under  the  gen- 
eral title,  "Reading  for  the  Ranks."  The  cost  of  shipping 
the  Bibles  and  other  books  was  great.  The  idea  of  a  special 
vessel,  which  might  have  been  admitted  under  flag  of  truce, 
had  to  be  abandoned,  and  the  cases  were  sent  in  different 

'  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  Dr.  Hoge's  account  of  his  interest- 
ing conversation  with  Carlyle  cannot  be  found,  and  I  hesitate  to  give 
any  of  it  from  the  memory  of  those  who  heard  him  relate  it.  A  niece 
of  Dr.  Hoge's  learned  of  the  reference  in  Carlyle's  journal  from  a 
friend  of  his  nephew,  whom  she  met  on  shipboard. 


Mission  to  England.  i8i 

blockade-runners  as  opportunity  offered.  Only  a  few  could 
be  sent  in  one  vessel,  so  that  the  work  took  much  time. 
Many  of  them  were  captured,  and  some  were  sunk  in  the 
sea,  but  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  books  reached  the  Con- 
federacy, 

Meanwhile  his  mission  was  bearing-  other  fruit.  Chris- 
tian men  in  the  North  heard  of  it.  They  felt  that  it  was  a 
shame  that  there  should  be  an  embargo  on  the  word  of  God, 
and  the  authorities  were  induced  to  secure  the  passage 
through  the  lines  of  donations  of  Bibles  for  the  Confederate 
States.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Backus,  of  Baltimore,  to  whom  Dr. 
Hoge  had  written  requesting  aid  in  his  mission,  wrote  to 
him  of  what  was  doing  on  the  other  side : 

Baliimore,  March  17,  1863. 
My  Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  reached  me  about  the  first 
of  this  month,  just  as  I  was  leaving  home  for  an  absence  of 
eight  or  ten  days.  I  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  one  of  our 
elders,  known  to  be  warmly  interested  in  the  Southern 
cause,  with  the  request  that  he  would  do  what  he  could.  I 
was  sorry  to  find  on  my  return  that  he  had  delayed  the 
matter  to  consult  me,  owing  to  the  fact  that  a  question  had 
been  raised  here,  whether  it  will  not  be  more  economical 
and  safe  to  send  Bibles  from  Baltimore  than  from  London. 
The  American  Bible  Society  has  appropriated  fifty  thou- 
sand copies  to  the  South,  a  large  number  of  which  have 
been  sent  here.  The  question,  however,  was  raised  in  our 
Bible  Board,  whether  Bibles  from  the  North  would  be 
received.  The  Rev.  Peyton  Harrison,  who  is  now  here, 
has  assured  them  that  they  will  be.  I  have  sent  several 
thousand  myself,  the  gift  of  Mr.  Weeks,  at  the  request  of 
friends,  by  means  of  a  permit  from  General  Dix  at  Fortress 
Monroe.  Mrs.  George  Brown  has  also  sent  several  thou- 
sand. And  about  a  week  since  an  agent  from  Richmond 
came  here  with  a  thousand  dollars  in  gold  to  purchase 
Bibles  for  the  South.  All  this  seems  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion, and  many,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  feel  that  at  the  present 
high  rate  of  exchange,  and  with  the  risks  of  their  being 
captured,  it  is  better  to  send  at  present  from  Baltimore, 
under  General  Dix's  pass,  than  to  send  to  London  and  have 


1 82  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

English  Bibles  shipped  from  there.  I  have  no  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  some  funds  will  be  collected  and  sent  to  you,  ac- 
cording to  your  directions,  by  the  next  steamer  (though 
not  as  much  as  would  have  been  sent  under  other  circum- 
stances), as  there  are  many  persons  here  who  would  be 
glad  to  embrace  any  opportunity  to  send  Bibles  and  relig- 
ious books  South. 

While  Dr.  Hoge  w^as  engaged  in  these  labors,  his  brother 
paid  a  visit  early  in  March  to  General  Jackson's  headquarters 
at  Moss  Neck,  near  Fredericksburg,  to  engage  in  mission 
work  among  the  soldiers.  General  Jackson  had  organized 
the  chaplain  service  with  as  much  care  as  any  other  depart- 
ment of  his  army.  Dr.  Hoge's  cousin,  the  Rev.  Dr.  B.  Tucker 
Lacy,  was  at  the  head  of  this  service,  which  of  course  in- 
cluded all  denominations.  Dr.  William  Hoge,  speaking  of 
one  occasion  when  he  had  preached  there,  after  naming  those 
who  took  part,  said :  "So  we  had  a  Presbyterian  sermon, 
introduced  by  Baptist  services,  under  the  direction  of  a 
Methodist  chaplain,  in  an  Episcopal  church.  Was  not  that 
a  beautiful  solution  of  the  vexed  problem  of  Christian 
union?" 

It  was  doubtless  with  regard  to  this  visit  that  he  wrote  the 
letter  about  General  Jackson  referred  to  in  the  following 
notes.  Very  soon  after  it  was  received,  a  melancholy  interest 
attached  to  everything  connected  with  Jackson  from  the 
news  of  his  wounding  at  Chancellorsville.^ 

Grosvenor  Square,  May  19,  1863. 
Dear  Sir:    The  letter,  which  I  now  return,  is  highly 
interesting. 

I  am  going  out  of  town  for  the  Whitsuntide  holidays, 
but  I  shall  hope  to  see  you  before  you  quit  England. 

Your  very  faithful  servant,  Shaftesbury. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Hoge. 

'We  say  "wounding,"  for  it  was  impossible  that  his  death,  which 
occurred  on  the  loth,  could  have  been  known  in  London  on  the  19th,  o 
rather  before  the  19th,  when  the  letter  was  sent  to  Lord  Shaftesbury. 


Mission  to  England.  183 

26  Abingdon  Street,  Westminster,  S.  W.,  22  May,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  return  the  enclosed  with  many  thanks. 
We  have  read  it  with  great  interest. 

I  hope — though  I  can  hardly  venture  to  hope — ^that  the 
Bibles  and  books  and  tracts  have  been  got  in  safely.  I 
see  from  your  brother's  letter  that  there  is  some  prospect 
of  the  Federal  government  allowing  Bibles — perhaps  all 
religious  books — to  be  introduced  freely.  This  would  be 
a  happy  thing  so  far. 

This  sad  war  seems  to  me  to  be  in  some  respects  the 
saddest  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  in  some  respects 
the  most  extraordinary.  It  is  a  most  striking  exception 
to  Cowper's  line,  "War  is  a  game  that  kings  play  at."  Here 
it  seems  to  be  the  doing  of  the  people  to  an  extent  that 
has  probably  scarcely  ever  occurred  before.  I  hope  that 
when  your  Southern  constitution  is  formed,  you  will  have 
something  more  like  our  well-tried  British  Constitution. 
And,  if  not  a  king,  you  will  at  least  have  in  some  form  a 
real  nobility. 

I  hope  you  will  soon  have  better  news  from  home.  It 
would  give  unspeakable  joy  throughout  this  country  to 
receive  tidings  of  the  termination  of  this  lamentable  war, 
as  you  have  doubtless  seen.    I  remain,  my  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  truly,  J.  Gurney. 

P.  S. — Mrs.  Gurney  and  my  family  unite  in  very  kind 
regards.  We  would  all  be  greatly  pleased  to  see  you  again 
at  West  Hill. 

The  first  explicit  reference  to  Jackson's  death  is  in  a  note 
from  Nisbet  and  Company  about  a  reprint  they  were  making 
of  Dr.  William  Hoge's  sketch  of  Captain  Harrison  (May 
28th),  which  closes,  "We  sympathize  deeply  with  you  in  the 
death  of  General  Jackson."  Still  later  he  received  the  fol- 
lowing note  from  Mr.  Alexander  Haldane,  one  of  the  warm- 
est friends  he  made  on  that  side  of  the  Atlantic,  unremitting 
in  his  attention,  and  constant  in  his  affection  throughout 
life: 

no  Westbrook  Terrace,  4  July,  1863. 
Dear  Dr.  Hoge  :   I  have  been  very  desirous  to  see  you, 
and  now  write  to  ask  if  you  could  dine  with  us  on  Satur- 


184  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

day  at  half-past  six  o'clock,  or  if  not,  whether  you  would 
name  some  other  day. 

We  are  much  interested  in  the  Southern  news,  although 
we  miss  your  gallant  and  heroic  General  Stonewall  Jack- 
son. Most  truly  yours,  Alex.  Haldane. 

Lord  Shaftesbury  wishes  much  that  I  should  see  your 
brother's  letter  about  Jackson. 

Meanwhile  his  brother  had  written  another  "letter  about 

Jackson,"  a  letter  which  time  has  not  robbed  of  its  pathos. 

He  was  on  his  way  to  another  mission  to  the  army,  and  thus 

wrote  his  wife : 

Wednesday,  May  13,  1863. 

Perhaps  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  journalize  this  little 
expedition  to  the  army,  writing  as  I  have  opportunity,  and 
mailing  when  I  have  enough.  So  I  will  begin  with  Gor- 
donsville.  About  ten  minutes  after  our  train  arrived,  the 
special  train  came  slowly  around  the  curve,  bearing  its  sad, 
precious  burden,  the  dead  body  of  our  beloved  glorious 
Jackson.  As  it  drew  near,  the  minute  guns,  the  soldiers' 
funeral  bell,  sounded  heavily.  How  strange  it  seemed  that 
a  crowd  so  eager  should  be  so  still,  and  that  Jackson  should 
be  received  with  silent  tears  instead  of  loud-ringing  huz- 
zas. As  the  train  stopped,  I  caught  sight  of  the  coffin, 
wrapped  in  the  flag  he  had  borne  so  high  and  made  so 
radiant  with  a  glory  so  pure.  Many  wreaths  of  exquisite 
flowers,  too,  covered  it  from  head  to  foot.  Sitting  near  the 
body  were  young  Morrison,  his  brother-in-law,  our  dear 
friend  Jimmy  Smith,  and  Major  Pendleton.  Smith  asked 
me  to  get  in  and  ride  with  him  to  Charlottesville ;  but  I  felt 
that  I  ought  not  to  lose  another  day  from  my  work. 

I  asked  him  if  Mrs.  Jackson  would  like  to  see  me,  telling 
him  that  I  would  on  no  account  intrude  myself  on  her  in 
such  an  hour,  but  would  count  it  a  high  privilege  if  I  might 
be  of  the  least  comfort  to  her.  He  assured  me  that  she 
would  welcome  my  visit ;  but  I  asked  him  to  see  her  first. 
He  went  into  the  car  in  which  she  sat  almost  alone,  and 
immediately  returned  with  her  request  that  I  should  come 
in.  And  there  sat  this  noble  little  woman  in  her  widow's 
weeds,  a  spectacle  to  touch  and  instruct  any  heart.  She 
was  so  patient  amid  all  the  pageantry — the  oppressive  pa- 


Mission  to  England.  185 

geantry — through  which  of  necessity  she  had  been  carried ; 
so  calm  and  sustained  and  sweet  in  behavior  and  conversa- 
tion, and  so  manifestly  stricken  to  the  heart's  depths  by  a 
sense  of  her  incomparable  loss.  And  there,  just  before  her 
lay  her  sweet  little  babe,  little  Julia,  named  by  him  for  his 
mother,  the  babe  he  had  never  seen  till  her  recent  ten  days' 
visit  abruptly  ended  by  the  great  battle ;  the  babe  he  so  de- 
lighted in — there  it  lay  on  its  back,  the  best  little  thing, 
looking  so  tender  and  so  unconscious  of  its  part  in  these 
tremendous  scenes,  looking  aimlessly  about  and  pleased 
with  everything,  not  starting,  or  ceasing  the  meaningless 
pretty  motions  of  its  little  hands,  as  the  cannon  thundered — 
"how  my  heart  yearned  over  it  for  his  sake,  and  for  her  sake 
and  its  own  little  sake.  I  stooped  over  it,  and  drew  it  up  to 
me  and  more  than  once  kissed  "its  innocent  little  mouth." 
I  sat  some  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  and  felt  it  was  good  to  be 
there ;  that  I  had  communed  with  one  more  of  those  pure 
and  noble  women  who  prove  themselves  worthy  of  their 
noble  husbands ;  yea,  with  another  "elect  lady,"  beautiful 
in  the  grace  of  Christ  and  precious  in  the  sight  of  God. 
She  was  so  evidently  bearing  all  and  doing  all  as  she  felt 
that  her  husband  could  have  wished  her  to  do,  that  she 
seemed  to  me  just  what  he  would  have  been  in  her  place — 
the  tender,  helpless,  stricken,  brave  little  wife  of  such  a 
saint,  such  a  hero.  She  spoke  of  the  pleasure  he  had  had 
in  my  visit  to  camp,  and  thanked  me  most  cordially  for  this 
visit  to  her.  Oh !  how  I  wish  you  could  be  with  her  a  good 
while,  both  to  know  her  and  to  comfort  her,  since  you  have 
yourself  both  suffered  and  sympathized  so  much. 

When  Mrs.  Jackson  was  sent  to  Richmond,  because  of 
the  approaching  battles.  Governor  Letcher  (who  was  on 
the  train  to-day  with  the  body)  made  her  his  guest;  but 
Sister  Susan  took  her  to  her  home,  where  she  could  be 
more  quiet.  She  heard  of  her  husband's  wound  on  Mon- 
day, but,  because  of  interrupted  communication  effected  by 
the  raid,  could  not  get  to  him  until  Thursday.  Susan  went 
with  her,  her  companion  and  comforter,  and  was  thus  one 
of  that  favored  number  who  saw  this  "good  man  meet  his 
fate."  W.  J.  H. 

But  now  for  the  beloved  wife  at  home,  so  ready  to  help 
•in  others'  sorrows,  and  for  himself,  so  full  of  all  his  coun- 


1 86  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

try's  woes,  the  sword  was  preparing  that  was  to  pierce  their 
own  souls.  One  day,  a  few  weeks  before  Dr.  Hoge  was 
to  return  home,  Mr.  Mason  sent  him,  with  a  hastily  pencilled 
note,  holding  out  such  scanty  hope  of  mistake  as  the  circum- 
stances permitted,  a  clipping  from  a  paper  announcing  the 
arrest  of  a  Federal  spy — a  Northern  woman  who  was  a 
guest  in  his  house,  kindly  treated  and  trusted.  A  letter  of 
hers  had  been  intercepted  attempting  to  secure  Dr.  Hoge's 
capture  and  imprisonment  on  his  return,  and  advising  the 
arrest  of  ministers  at  the  North  whose  Southern  sympathies 
she  had  learned  in  his  house.  When  the  officers  went  to  ar- 
rest her,  "finding  a  child  of  Dr.  Hoge's  lying  dead  in  the 
house,  the  arrest  zvas  postponed  until  the  funeral  services 
were  over." 

Into  the  anguish  of  that  hour  we  may  not  enter,  but  when- 
he  wrote  to  his  wife,  faith  had  shone  out  clear  and  strong : 

London,  August  12,  1863. 
My  Dear  Wife  :  I  have  learned  that  I  am  bereaved  of 
one  of  my  children.  I  know  not  which  has  been  taken.  I 
love  them  all  with  my  whole  heart,  and  were  God  to  permit 
me  to  decide  which  one  to  surrender,  I  could  not  decide, 
but  would  refer  it  back  to  him.  My  grief  is  increased  when 
I  know  how  much  you  are  distressed  for  me,  that  I  should 
be  thus  suddenly,  strangely  afflicted,  when  far  from  home, 
among  strangers.  But  I  am  among  friends,  kind,  Christian, 
sympathizing  friends ;  and,  above  all,  near  to  me  is  the 
Friend  "above  all  others."  I  am  wonderfully  sustained 
amidst  all  the  uncertainty  that  attends  my  trial.  I  can  say 
from  my  heart,  "I  know,  O  Lord,  that  thy  judgments  are 
right,  and  that  in  faithfulness  thou  hast  afflicted  me."  Do 
not  grieve,  my  darling,  on  my  account.  Divine  grace  is 
abundantly  given  me,  so  that  I  have  no  disposition  to  mur- 
mur or  repine.  These  separations  are  sad,  but  they  will 
soon  be  over.  Heaven  is  our  home.  We  will  there  forever 
be  with  one  another,  and  with  the  Lord.  Be  of  good  com- 
fort. Cast  all  your  care  upon  God ;  he  careth  for  you.  He 
chastises  you  because  he  loves  you.  My  greatest  desire  is 
that  this  may  be  a  sanctified  affliction  to  you  and  the  dear 
children.     It  soothes  me  that  dear  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Brown. 


_^^^^  I^^    li/^f^ 


^;e-'»-*c- 


tUn^  ^i-^^-e.    ^:V^  CZe^aa^z^       L^  /Tt-C^,     /%^    c/  ■Th^nxjA     CLJ>    fU^^   J2cc^  ^ 
5^0    .te^  J^  ><^=^     >-^  ^^/^'^'^l^^     ^     rn-^^y^     err  ^:^ 

'flr^_j^  ^^uz:;^   c^  ^c^  ■  ^*-^   ^^  ^^  -^^^   '^ 

0-u-e^~       //-^-^l-V^M       t!^      <5ru^    A^ryy,^       '     /(^   ^W^     /Xfi'^^a^    ^ITUKr*^      /fi 

7Byrt„n^   (^^^^jL  UyJpk  o^,  ^%Ji  JXl^  JT^  })7.rinji^  cX    h  /dc^  <5^*2L^»<C 


Mission  to  England.  187 

are  with  you ;  and  then  Dr.  Moore  is  so  kind  at  such  sea- 
sons. Let  this  letter  cahii  and  reassure  you.  I  know  the 
authorities  wiU  allow  it  to  pass  to  you.  It  comes  from  the 
sad,  yet  comforted  heart  of  your  loving  husband, 

M.  D.  HoGE. 

But  the  hardest  part  of  the  blow  was  yet  to  come.     He 
tells  the  story  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf : 

London,  September  i,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sister  :  You  know  I  would  not  willingly  cast 
one  shadow  on  your  path,  or  add  one  drop  to  your  cup  of 
sorrow,  already  so  full,  by  telling  you  what  would  pain 
your  sympathizing  and  loving  heart,  but  will  you  not 
allow  me  the  selfish  relief  of  telling  you  of  the  grief  that 
is  in  my  own,  and  thus,  at  the  same  time,  of  showing  you 
how  dear  your  friendship  is  to  me,  and  how  I  turn  to  it 
for  solace  in  my  time  of  need? 

Last  Monday  I  received  two  letters — one  from  my  dear 
friend,  Mrs.  Brown,  and  the  other  from  Susan.  It  was 
some  time  before  I  could  break  the  seal  of  either.  I  had 
known  for  three  weeks  that  one  of  my  children  had  been 
taken,  but  now  in  a  moment  I  could  know  zvhich;  but  how 
could  I  bring  myself  to  make  the  discovery?  I  was  suf- 
fering so  much  for  Susan,  entering  so  fully  into  her  grief, 
knowing  that  she  was  bearing  mine  as  well  as  her  own,  that 
I  felt  I  could  not  bear  the  announcement  from  her,  so  I 
opened  Mrs.  Brown's  first ;  but  after  reading  a  few  lines, 
it  was  long  before  I  could  read  more.  I  had  somewhat 
accustomed  myself  to  the  idea  that  it  was  our  little  one  who 
had  been  taken,  for  from  his  birth  he  had  been  very  feeble, 
and  often  I  have  felt  that  the  time  was  near  when  I  must 
resign  him;  but  I  had  not  been  able  to  anticipate,  what  was 
the  fact,  that  my  precious  Lacy — my  pride  and  joy,  my 
heart's  treasure,  my  consecrated  one,  my  fondest  hope  in 
the  future — that  he  was  the  one  whom  I  was  to  see  no  more 
on  earth.  I  have  had  many  trials,  but  never  one  like  this. 
From  the  time  he  was  born,  he  has  carried  my  very  heart 
in  his  little  bosom,  and  his  love  for  me  was  something  won- 
derful. I  carried  him  in  my  arms  for  hours  when  he  was  an 
infant ;  took  him  with  me  in  my  rides  when  he  grew  older ; 
made  him  a  companion  more  sweet  to  me  than  any  other  I 


1 88  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

could  conceive  of ;  kept  him  in  my  study  by  day ;  and  nearly 
every  night,  when  I  could  be  at  home,  let  him  go  to  sleep 
in  my  arms,  a  pleasure  he  seemed  to  enjoy  above  all  others. 
His  seat  was  next  to  mine  at  table;  his  chair  was  next 
to  mine  at  prayers ;  and  when  we  kneeled  down,  he  would 
be  perfectly  content  and  still,  if  I  held  his  hand  in  mine,  or 
laid  my  hand  on  his  head.  I  never  laid  a  finger  on  him  in 
chastisement.  When  he  had  done  anything  I  disapproved, 
and  I  looked  displeased  in  consequence,  he  could  not  be 
happy  again  until  I  smiled.  He  would  lay  his  little  head 
on  my  knee  and  weep,  or  look  up  at  me  with  streaming 
eyes,  rapidly  saying,  "Papa,  papa,  I  sorry,"  until  I  was 
reconciled  and  kissed  him.  I  meant  to  be  his  playmate 
during  his  boyhood,  and  his  associate  as  he  grew  up  to 
manhood,  if  I  should  be  spared;  it  was  my  highest  am- 
bition to  form  his  tastes  and  principles,  to  study  with  and 
for  him ;  and  then,  if  it  pleased  God,  to  see  him  a  minister 
of  Christ.  These  are  some  of  the  expectations  which  have 
"been  blasted  in  a  moment. 

P>om  dear  Susan's  letter,  and  from  Mrs.  Brown's,  I  see 
bow  his  mother's  love  for  him  had  grown  during  my  ab- 
sence. She  says  he  was  her  shadow,  following  her  through 
the  house,  to  market,  wherever  she  went.  She  says  he 
often  told  her  he  was  her  little  man;  that  he  knew  where 
papa  kept  his  pistols,  and  he  would  not  let  anybody  hurt 
her  while  I  was  gone.  During  his  short  illness,  in  which 
he  suffered  excruciating  pain,  he  tried  to  hide  it  from  her, 
and  when  she  saw  his  face  quivering  at  times,  and  would 
ask  him  about  it,  he  would  tell  her  he  was  trying  to  keep 
from  crying,  because  it  made  her  cry.  Mrs.  Brown  writes, 
"His  mind  was  entirely  clear  to  the  last.  I  never  heard 
him  utter  sweeter  words  or  look  more  lovely  than  he  did 
lialf  an  hour  before  his  death.  He  saw  his  mother  weeping, 
and  said,  'Mamma,  what  is  the  matter?  what  are  you  crying 
for?'  She  sobbed,  'Because  my  little  boy  is  so  sick.'  He 
looked  at  her  so  affectionately  and  replied,  'Mamma,  I  am 
so  sorry  for  yoti,' — ^^his  last  connected  sentence.  His  love 
for  you  had  only  grown  with  your  absence.  Nothing 
<:ould  wean  him  from  you.  He  talked  constantly  of  your 
return  and  of  your  letters.  Many  a  day  he  would  be  in  the 
yard  when  I  returned  from  the  office,  and  would  always 
ask,  'Have  you  any  letter  from  my  papa.'    The  very  day  of 


Mission  to  England.  189 

his  death  (Wednesday,  July  15th)  he  woke  hearing  his 
mother  reading  a  letter  aloud,  and,  in  a  half  dreamy  voice, 
asked,  'What  does  my  papa  say?'  " 

Mrs.  Brown  also  tells  me  just  what  I  feared,  that  Susan's 
sorrow  was  just  doubled  because  she  was  grieving  for  me 
as  much  as  for  herself. 

"Dear  mother,  it  has  been  a  sore  trial  to  bear  because  she 
has  had  to  bear  it  alone,  and  bear  it  for  you.  She  would 
often  say,  'If  I  could  only  spare  Mr.  Hoge  this.'  She  had 
been  so  loving  to  the  little  child  since  your  absence,  trying 
so  hard  to  fill  your  place  and  her  own,  too ;  never  wearied 
in  entertaining  him  with  stories  and  instructing  him  in  all 
knowledge.  Oh !  how  my  heart  bleeds  for  her.  Her  lone- 
liness is  so  great,  and  yet  the  Christian  triumphs,  and  she 
bears  up  so  nobly." 

My  sister,  this  is  the  child  I  have  lost  and  this  is  my 
grief ;  and  now  I  bless  God  I  can  say  from  my  heart,  I  do 
not  rebel  at  the  dispensation.  I  can  enter  somewhat  into 
the  feelings  of  my  dear  friend  and  elder,  Mr,  Martin,  when 
standing  at  Edward's  bedside,  when  he  thought  he  was 
dying,  he  said,  "O  Lord,  thou  art  holy  and  just  and  good." 
Sure  I  am  there  was  never  one  who  needed  and  deserved 
affliction  more  than  I  do.  I  pray  to  be  prepared  by  it  to  be 
a  comfort  to  my  suffering  people  when  I  return  home,  pre- 
pared to  strengthen  them,  and  to  be  strong  myself  for  all 
the  trials  we  may  yet  undergo  before  our  independence  is 
won.  It  has  been  a  comfort  to  me  to  write  this  letter — a 
comfort  dashed,  it  is  true,  by  the  apprehension  that  it  has 
given  you  pain.  Precious  as  sympathy  is,  I  almost  wish 
I  could  keep  you  from  sympathizing  with  me,  for  it  im- 
plies a  community  of  suffering  in  a  case  like  this.  I  would 
fain  tell  you  only  of  joys,  successes  and  prosperous  ad- 
venture, for  then  your  sympathy,  like  the  secondary  rain- 
bow, reflecting  mine,  would  show  only  in  colors  bright  and 
cheering  to  the  eyes  and  heart.  But  we  cannot  always  have 
it  so ;  the  bow  in  the  evening  cloud  is  sometimes  blotted  out 
by  a  night  of  sadness  and  storm  ;  but  a  morning  of  joy  will 
come  at  last,  and  with  this  anticipation,  and  with  the  as- 
surance of  unchanging  affection,  let  me  end  my  letter. 

A  few  days  afterwards  the  long  waited  for  opportunity 
came,  and  he  set  his  face  homeward.  Two  letters  to  Mrs, 
Greenleaf  describe  the  progress  of  his  voyage : 


190  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Halifax^  September  16,  1863. 

I  bless  God  for  such  a  friend.  I  bless  you  for  such  love. 
Like  a  bright  and  constant  star,  when  the  sun  has  gone 
down,  it  shines  comfort  into  my  heart  during  this  night 
of  sorrow. 

I  know  not  how  to  account  for  it,  but  since  the  death  of 
Parsons,  my  only  intimate  friends  have  been  of  your  sex. 
In  England,  I  made  one,  who,  hearing  of  my  bereavement, 
wrote  to  me  saying,  "I  have  learned  to  know  you  well 
enough  to  be  sure  that  you  are  craving  the  sympathy  of 
a  woman's  heart,  and  so  I,"  etc.  If  this  was  comforting, 
■coming  from  one  who,  until  recently,  was  a  stranger,  you 
may  imagine  what  a  treasure  yours  is,  tried  and  proved  by 
time,  and  by  what  has  separated  so  many  chief  friends  as 
by  a  bottomless  gulf. 

Since  I  have  learned  how  my  grief  made  you  sick  in 
body  and  in  soul,  I  almost  regret  that  you  ever  heard  what 
happened  to  me,  but  it  is  Heaven's  ordinance  that  one 
member  shall  suffer  with  another  in  the  same  body. 

My  impatience  to  get  home  increases  every  hour ;  but  I 
have  yet  to  sound  a  deep  and  perilous  way  before  I  can 
arrive,  if  at  all.  I  need  not  explain;  the  papers  will  tell 
you  why. 

Several  days  before  I  left  England,  I  was  taken  with  a 
slow  fever,  which  continued  during  the  voyage  and  yet 
remains.  This  makes  my  hand  tremulous  and  like  that  of 
.an  old  man,  but  I  am  thankful  to  say  I  have  a  heart  as 
fresh  and  full  as  ever  of  love  for  my  friends.  O  that  it  was 
iuller  of  love  and  loyalty  to  my  God  and  Saviour !  Certain 
I  am,  and  so  may  you  be,  that  it  reciprocates  all  you  can 
feel  for  me.  Say  in  my  behalf  whatever  is  kindest  to  all 
who  remember  and  care  for  your  tempest-tossed,  but  com- 
forted brother ;  and  think  of  me  during  the  next  fortnight 
when  you  hear  the  wind  blow. 

Bermuda,  October  3,  1863. 
My  Dear  Sister  :  After  a  most  uncomfortable  passage 
Ijy  the  Alpha  from  Halifax,  having  been  delayed  twenty- 
four  hours  beyond  our  due  time  by  head  winds,  I  arrived 
at  this  place  on  the  23d  ultimo.  It  was  a  comfort,  however, 
to  get  into  port  and  into  the  hospitable  home  of  my  friend, 
Mr.  William  P.  Campbell,  late  of  New  Orleans,  just  as  the 
equinoctial  gales  were  commencing  in  earnest.     It  rained 


AlissioN  TO  England.  191 

and  blew  heavily  for  four  clays,  and  I  was  glad  and  grateful 
to  be  on  shore.  I  have  been  sick  most  of  the  time  since  I 
landed,  yet  I  managed  to  preach  here  (at  St.  George's) 
last  Sunday,  both  morning  and  evening,  and  to-morrow  I 
shall  attempt  the  same  at  Hamilton,  twelve  miles  distant. 
It  is  pleasant  to  me  to  preach  in  so  many  different  parts  of 
the  world.  A  good  seed  dropped  here  and  there,  at  points 
far  asunder,  may  spring  up  and  bear  fruit  of  which  I  shall 
know  nothing  until  the  day  of  final  accounts. 

I  expect  to  sail  from  here  on  Tuesday  next  (the  6th)  in 
the  blockade-runner,  Advance  (late  the  Lord  Clyde). 

A  few  days  will  determine  whether  my  destination  will 
be  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  Richmond,  or  some  Northern 
Bastile.  If  the  latter,  perhaps  I  will  see  you  sooner  than 
would  otherwise  be  possible,  and  that  will  be  one  consola- 
tion, provided  I  be  allowed  to  receive  calls. 

The  difificulties  of  getting  in  are  increased  very  much  of 
late,  but  I  have  good  hopes  of  a  safe  arrival. 

I  send  you  another  photograph  of  Lacy.  It  was  copied 
in  London  just  before  I  left,  from  a  picture  taken  about  six 
months  after  the  one  a  copy  of  which  I  sent  you  some 
months  ago.  The  one  I  now  enclose  is  an  excellent  likeness 
of  him  in  his  serious  moods. 

It  is  just  the  look  and  attitude  he  generally  had  when 
he  was  at  family  prayers  in  the  morning.  Dear  little  fel- 
low !  It  is  all  morning  with  him  now,  and  praise.  So  may 
it  be  with  us  one  day !    Adieu.  M.  D.  H. 

All  the  ports  of  the  Confederacy  were  now  practically 
closed  except  Wilmington.  The  main  mouth  of  the  Cape 
Fear  was  also  closed,  but  there  was  another  channel,  about 
fifteen  miles  nearer  Wilmington,  where  the  river  and  the  sea 
had  broken  through  the  narrow  strip  of  sand  that  divided 
them.^  This  inlet  was  a  favorite  entrance,  especially  for  the 
coasting  trade,  and  for  vessels  approaching  from  the  North. 
It  was  protected  by  Fort  Fisher,  and  blockaded  by  a  large 
Federal  fleet.  Sunday  morning,  October  nth,  was  a  day  of 
cloudless  beauty.  Dr.  Hoge  came  early  on  deck  to  find  the 
Advance  sailing  merrily  southward,  with  the  Federal  fleet 

'  Since  the  war  this  has  been  closed  by  the  government. 


192  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

in  full  view.  The  captain  had  been  drinking  and  playing 
cards  with  some  young  men  most  of  the  night,  and  Dr.  Hoge 
became  anxious. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do,  Captain?" 

"I  am  going  to  Wilmington  to-day." 

"But  surely  you  are  not  going  to  attempt  it  in  broad  day- 
light." 

"Why  not?" 

"Well,  for  one  reason,  the  Confederate  government  can- 
not afford  to  lose  this  ship,  and  for  another,  there  are  some 
of  us  on  board  that  do  not  wish  to  be  captured,  and  I  am  one 
of  them." 

"Oh !  you  will  not  be  captured,  and  this  ship  will  not  be 
lost." 

Still  they  bore  on ;  but  as  yet  there  was  no  movement  in 
the  Federal  fleet.  It  is  probable  that  they  were  deceived  by 
the  boldness  of  the  steamer's  approach,  and  took  her  for 
some  transport  or  supply  vessel.  When  she  was  nearly  op- 
posite the  entrance,  the  helm  was  put  hard  to  port,  and  all 
steam  put  on  as  she  made  for  the  inlet. 

The  mask  was  now  thrown  off,  and  three  Federal  vessels 
gave  chase.  She  had  a  good  start;  but  if  they  could  not 
catch  her  by  steam,  perhaps  they  could  with  gunpowder,  and 
soon  the  shells  were  shrieking  through  her  rigging.  Any 
moment  might  decide  her  fate,  but  still  she  sped  on  un- 
touched. The  situation  was  critical — and  uncomfortable. 
But  now  the  pursuing  vessels  came  in  range  of  the  Confed- 
erate guns,  and  Fort  Fisher  opened  fire.  The  pursuit  slack- 
ened, and  the  pursuers  fell  off.  Almost  the  next  instant  the 
Advance  was  stuck  fast  on  a  shoal ;  had  it  happened  a  mo- 
ment sooner,  they  would  have  been  lost.  The  captain,  now 
thoroughly  sober,  came  to  Dr.  Hoge  and  besought  him  to 
lead  them  in  a  service  of  thanksgiving;  and  on  that  Sab- 
bath morning,  in  sight  of  the  baffled  enemy  and  the  pro- 
tecting fort,  passengers  and  crew  assembled  on  deck  and 
stood  with  bared  heads  beneath  their  own  blue  Southern 


Mission  to  England.  193 

skies,  while  he  lifted  his  heart  to  God  in  thanksgiving  and 
praise  for  their  deliverance.  Yet  the  danger  was  not  quite 
over.  If  they  did  not  get  free  by  night  there  was  risk  of 
their  being  boarded  under  cover  of  the  darkness.  But  with 
the  rising  tide  they  were  afloat  again  in  the  early  afternoon, 
and  that  night  they  slept  in  Wilmington. 

Dr.  Hoge's  first  impression  on  returning  from  the  wealth 
and  comfort  of  foreign  lands  to  his  beloved  Confederacy 
must  have  been  depressing  in  the  extreme.  The  fall  before 
Wilmington  had  been  scourged  by  yellow  fever ;  in  the  sus- 
pension of  all  quarantine  and  sanitary  regulations,  it  had 
gained  an  entrance  with  blockade-runners  from  the  West 
Indies,  and  had  swept  through  the  town  until  hundreds  had 
died,  and  every  one  who  could  get  away  had  left  town,  many 
not  to  return  until  the  war  was  over.  Even  then  there  were 
many  hospitable  homes  whose  doors  would  have  been  thrown 
open  to  him  had  his  presence  been  known ;  but  he  went  to  a 
wretched  little  hotel — the  only  one  that  kept  up  a  starving 
existence  amid  the  general  prostration.  It  was  a  great  con- 
trast to  visits  that  he  paid  there  in  more  prosperous  times, 
but  after  all  he  was  in  his  own  country;  scourged,  bleeding, 
fire-girdled,  it  might  be;  but  still  the  country  of  his  love, 
for  which  he  had  suffered  much,  and  was  ready  to  suffer 
more.    Two  days  later  he  was  at  home. 

Mrs.  Hoge  wrote  of  it  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf : 

R /  December  14,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sister  Mary:  I  wrote  you  soon  after  my 
husband  went  abroad,  but  never  knew  whether  you  re- 
ceived it,  until  his  return.  I  was  very  glad  you  wrote  to 
him,  for  it  was  so  seldom  he  received  any  of  our  letters. 
We  sent  him  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  from  this 
house,  and  he  got  only  thirty.  I  sent  many  through  the 
North,  thinking  that  was  the  most  direct  route,  and  not  one 
got  to  England  sent  in  that  way,  except  by  flag  of  truce.  I 
suppose  you  saw  an  account  of  the  wonderful  escape  he 

'  So  written,  evidently  to  avoid  identification  if  the  letter  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Federal  authorities. 


194  Moses  Drury  Hogh. 

made  in  running  the  blockade.  I  believe  it  was  in  answer 
to  the  many  prayers  that  ascended  for  him  all  over  our 
land.  Oh !  you  do  not  know  what  a  thrill  of  joy  was  sent 
to  my  heart,  weighed  down  by  sorrow  and  intense  anxiety, 
by  the  telegram  sent  from  Fort  Fisher,  "Ran  in  this  morn- 
ing under  heavy  fire ;  all  safe  and  well."  Two  days  after- 
wards, October  13th,  he  arrived  safely — we  will  pass  over 
his  arrival. 

He  looks  more  robust  than  I  ever  saw  him,  but  his 
health  was  not  entirely  restored.  He  has  not  been  well 
one  day  since  he  came,  having  had  a  fever,  which  prevailed 
in  England  a  month  before  he  left.  He  was  not  strong 
when  he  reached  home;  then  a  throng  of  company,  and 
late  hours  to  prepare  for  Sabbath  sermons,  have  just  kept 
him  unwell  nearly  all  the  time. 

He  is  much  changed  since  you  saw  him.  I  never  saw 
any  one  as  crushed  and  broken-hearted  as  he  is  under  this 
sore  trial.  Our  little  boy  was  nearly  four  years  old,  and  so 
noble  and  beautiful  that  many  persons  remarked  upon  his 
precociousness.  He  was  obedient  and  gentle  and  tender  in 
■his  feeling,  and,  in  fact,  all  that  we  could  desire.  But  he 
sickened,  and  in  a  few  hours  congestion  of  the  stomach 
carried  him  off.  My  poor  heart  is  broken  and  bleeding, 
but  I  hope  I  can  say,  "It  is  well  with  the  child."  ^  In  the 
bitter  cup  I  had  many  mercies,  and  was  wonderfully  sus- 
tained, and  so  is  dear  Moses.  I  wish  you  could  see  with 
what  sweet  Christian  spirit  he  bears  it,  and  his  preaching 
is  so  comforting  to  others  in  affliction,  and,  I  trust,  even 
since  his  return  home,  that  God  has  given  him  many  souls. 

Upon  his  return  home.  Dr.  Hoge  had  not  only  to  take  up 
the  many  threads  of  the  work  of  the  church,  but  was  im- 
portuned to  lecture  on  the  experiences  of  his  mission  and  the 
attitude  of  the  outside  world  towards  the  Confederacy,  At 
last  the  request  came  in  an  almost  official  form  from  the 
State  and  Confederate  officers,  and  he  consented,  delivering 
several  lectures  in  Richmond  and  Petersburg.  No  building 
in  Richmond  proved  sufficient  for  the  audiences,  and  the  lec- 
tures netted  several  thousand  dollars  for  the  relief  of  the  suf- 
fering families  of  Confederate  soldiers. 

'  The  text  of  Dr.  Moore's  beautiful  funeral  sermon. 


Mission  to  England.  195 

There  have  been  frequent  echoes  of  this  mission  in  the 
years  that  have  followed. 

Once  on  a  visit  to  Boston,  not  long  after  the  war,  Dr. 
Hoge  saw  an  advertisement  in  a  bookseller's  window  of 
Confederate  Bibles  for  sale.  He  went  in  and,  finding  they 
w^ere  his  own  Bibles,  purchased  one.  It  bore  this  legend 
printed  on  a  slip  of  paper  pasted  inside  the  cover : 

From  the  cargo  of  the 

Anglo-Rebel  Blockade-Runner, 

Minna, 

Captured  December  6,  1863, 

Off  Wilmington, 

By  the  Government  Dispatch-Ship 

CiRCASSIA, 

Captain  W.  B.  Eaton. 

In  1 89 1  the  editor  of  the  Leisure  Hour  wrote  him : 

56  Paternoster  Row,  E.  C,  London,  January  26,  1891. 
Dear  Dr.  Hoge  :  Is  there  any  published  account  of  your 
"running  the  blockade"  during  the  war?  I  want  to  use 
it  in  preparing  a  book  of  "true  tales"  for  Nisbet  and  Com- 
pany, the  principal  of  which  firm,  Mr.  James  Robertson, 
was  formerly  in  New  York,  representing  Nelson's  House. 
It  was  he  who  suggested  my  writing  to  you.  I  suppose  it 
to  be  the  same  Dr.  Hoge  whose  visit  to  the  Religious  Tract 
Society's  Committee  is  still  remembered  with  pleasure  by 
the  few  survivors  who  were  there  that  morning,  and  among 
them  by  Yours  very  sincerely, 

James  Macaulay,  M.  D. 

And  still  later  his  nephew,  residing  in  Wilmington,  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  the  War  Department  asking  informa- 
tion of  a  "Rev.  Dr.  Hoge,  who  was  reported  by  the  secret 
service  as  having  run  the  blockade  into  Wilmington  with  a 
cargo  of  rifles  for  the  Confederate  government." 

But  Dr.  Hoge's  most  prized  memorials  of  this  mission 
were  the  letters  he  received  from  several  of  the  leading  gen- 
erals in  the  Confederate  army,  to  whom  he  sent  copies  of 


196  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  Bibles  he  had  secured.  With  his  characteristic  capacity 
for  waiting,  he  never  pubHshed  these  letters,  or  even  men- 
tioned their  existence,  until  his  fiftieth  anniversary. 

Camp,  Orange  County,  March  10,  1864. 

My  Dear  Sir:  I  received  some  time  since  your  very 
kind  note  of  November  last,  accompanying  a  specimen  copy 
of  the  Bibles  you  obtained  during  your  late  visit  to  Eng- 
land. I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  so  acceptable  a 
gift,  and  pray  that  I  may  be  able  to  practice  its  holy  teach- 
ings. The  success  which  attended  your  expedition  and 
the  number  of  books  of  Scripture  you  procured  is  a  subject 
of  devout  thanksgiving  to  God,  and  of  hearty  congratula- 
tion to  yourself. 

With  feelings  of  gratitude  for  your  prayers,  and  kind 
sentiments  and  earnest  wishes  for  your  welfare,  I  am,  with 
great  respect  and  esteem,  Very  truly  yours, 

Robert  E.  Lee. 

Rev.  M.  D.  Hoge,  D.  D. 

Charlottesville,  November  27,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  received  your  kind  letter,  accom- 
panying a  copy  of  the  Bible.  Please  add  to  the  value  of  the 
gift  by  joining  in  my  prayers  that  I  may  be  assisted  in  fol- 
lowing the  precepts  of  the  Divine  Word,  and  that  I  may  be 
guided  by  its  wisdom. 

I  am  about  starting  for  the  army,  having  been  detained 
by  an  injury  to  my  leg.  Richard  S.  Ewell. 

Headquarters  Rodes'  Division,  November  25,   1863. 

My  Dear  Sir:  Captain  Smith  delivered  to  me  a  few 
days  ago  the  tasteful  and  valuable  present  you  did  me  the 
honor  to  make  me. 

I  assure  you  that  such  a  gift  at  your  hands  gives  me 
great  pleasure.  I  will  prize  it  highly,  and  read  it,  I  hope, 
with  profit  to  my  soul.  I  feel  sure  that  my  promising  you 
this  in  good  faith  will  convince  you  that  I  appreciate  your 
kindness,  and  that  I  am  sincerely  obliged  to  you  for  the 
interest  you  have  taken  in  my  welfare. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

R.  E.  Rodes. 

Rev.  M.  D.  Hoge,  D.  D.,  Richmond,  Va. 


Mission  to  England.  197 

Near  Orange  Court-house,  November  21,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sir:  Please  accept  my  grateful  acknowledg- 
ments for  the  very  neat  and  serviceable  edition  of  the  Holy 
Bible,  which  I  received  by  the  hand  of  Colonel  Pendleton. 

I  had  the  good  fortune  to  hear  General  Lee  read  your 
letter  to  him,  in  which  you  speak  of  having  secured  a  large 
amount  of  valuable  religious  literature  in  England  for  the 
use  of  the  Confederacy. 

Please  find  enclosed  thirty-six  dollars,  which  I  wish  ex- 
pended for  detached  portions  of  scripture — the  Gospels 
preferred — which  I  wish  to  distribute  among  my  friends  in 
the  ranks.^ 

With  best  wishes  for  your  continued  welfare  and  useful- 
ness, permit  me  to  remain.  Your  servant, 

J.  E.  B.  Stuart. 

Dalton,  February  15,  1864. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  from 
our  friend.  Colonel  Ewell,  the  Bible  presented  to  me  by 
you. 

I  assure  you  that  no  gift  has  ever  before  afforded  me  so 
much  gratification.  My  father's  children  were  taught  to 
venerate  the  name  you  bear,  and  I  know  that  you  bear  it 
worthily.  It  is,  therefore,  a  source  of  great  pleasure  to  find 
that  you  thought  of  me  beyond  the  Atlantic. 

Receiving  this  Bible  revived  the  feeling  you  gave  me 
almost  two  years  ago  by  saying  that  I  was  remembered  in 
the  prayers  of  those  who  meet  in  your  church  to  pray. 

I  know  that  it  would  gratify  your  goodness  to  believe 
that  the  reading  of  this  book  will  not  be  neglected.  Be  as- 
sured that  it  shall  not,  but  that  I  will  strive  to  read  it  in 
the  spirit  of  the  poor  publican's  prayer. 

Sincerely  yours,  J.  E.  Johnston. 

Rev.  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

^  Dr.  Hoge  sent  the  Bibles,  but  did  not  cash  the  check,  which  is  still 
preserved  as  a  souvenir  of  an  officer  for  whom  Dr.  Hoge  had  an  almost 
romantic  admiration. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

William  James  Hoge. 
i860  — 1864. 

"Thy  leaf  has  perished  in  the  green, 

And,  while  we  breathe  beneath  the  sun, 
The  world  which  credits  what  is  done 
Is  cold  to  all  that  might  have  been." — Tennyson. 

FROM  the  time  that  WilHam  Hoge  entered  the  ministry, 
the  lives  of  the  two  brothers  were  so  closely  intertwined 
by  correspondence  and  by  common  tastes  and  interests  that 
the  biography  of  the  one  has  necessarily  involved  much  of 
the  life  of  the  other. 

But  as  the  time  approaches  when  their  association  on 
earth  is  to  end,  we  must  pause  in  the  narrative  of  the  elder 
brother's  life  to  gather  up  the  missing  threads  in  the  life  of 
the  younger.  This  is  necessary  both  to  gain  a  just  concep- 
tion of  the  full  meaning  of  this  loss  to  Dr.  Hoge,  and  to 
fulfil  his  cherished  wish  that  any  biography  that  might  be 
written  of  him  should  enshrine  also  the  memory  of  his 
brother. 

William  Hoge  must  early  have  manifested  the  brilliant 
qualities  that  distinguished  him  in  manhood.  One  who 
knew  him  at  college  said  in  after  years :  "All  now  know  the 
man  of  genius;  it  was  my  privilege  to  know  the  boy  of 
genius."  Some  years  ago  his  son  met  in  New  York  the  late 
Hon.  S.  S.  Cox,  who  at  once  asked  if  he  were  related  to 
William  Hoge.  On  learning  the  relationship,  he  exclaimed, 
"His  son!  Why  I  loved  your  father  as  I  never  loved  any 
man.  I  owe  to  him  all  that  is  good  in  my  life.  We  were 
schoolmates.  He  taught  me  to  love  my  book.  He  taught 
me  to  love  my  Saviour." 

When  Mr.  Hoge  became  a  professor  in  the  Ohio  Univer- 
sity, where  he  had  been  a  student,  the  impression  that  he 


M(MjL.. 


William  James  Hoge.  199 

made  upon  those  with  whom  he  was  associated  must  have 
been  deep  and  abiding,  as  witnessed  by  the  following  tribute 
from  an  alumnus  of  that  institution,  who  had  been  a  stu- 
dent under  him,  published  after  many  years  in  The  (Phila- 
delphia) Presbyterian: 

In  this  list  of  crowned  heads,  something  of  whose  lives, 
we  believe,  remains  in  their  living  pupils,  was  the  bright 
spirit  dwelling  a  while  in  that  splendid  tabernacle  of  flesh, 
known  under  the  name  of  William  J.  Hoge.  Full  of  en- 
thusiasm, glowing  with  genius,  as  genial  as  gifted,  with  a 
face  of  marvellous  beauty,  with  eyes  sharp  and  even  pierc- 
ing, at  one  moment  playful,  twinkling  with  delight,  and 
at  another  tearful  with  love  and  pity,  as  often  as  sorrow 
and  discomfort  in  others,  spiritual  or  temporal,  stood  be- 
fore him ;  and  with  a  voice,  the  tones  of  which,  we  think, 
we  would  recognize  amidst  the  harmonies  of  heaven ;  no 
thoughtful  man  ever  heard  him  pray,  preach  or  sing,  who 
did  not  perceive,  by  tones,  words,  look  and  thought,  that 
he  was  feeling  after  his  heart  to  win  it  as  a  trophy  for  the 
Redeemer.  He  was  the  author  of  that  matchless  book. 
Blind  Bartimeus,  and  was  co-pastor  with  Dr.  Spring  in  the 
Brick  Church,  New  York,  where  many  keep  his  image  next 
to  God's  in  the  memories  of  their  salvation.  He  finished 
his  course,  a  few  years  after,  at  Petersburg,  Va.,  departing 
like  sunset  at  the  poles,  where  the  last  rays  of  the  departing 
sun  are  the  first  of  the  new  morn. 

We  have  already  seen  how  his  ministry  in  Richmond,  as 
colleague  with  his  brother,  opened  with  revival  blessing. 
The  same  blessing  followed  him  everywhere  to  the  end.  An 
attractive  glimpse  of  him  engaged  in  the  work  he  most  loved, 
during  his  ministry  in  Baltimore,  is  given  us  in  the  following 
sketch  by  the  late  Rev.  James  D.  Thomas : 

In  1845,  when  I  was  on  my  way  to  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary, I  stopped  at  Newark,  Del.,  to  spend  a  few  days  with 
some  friends.  On  reaching  that  place  I  found  that  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Vallandingham  (brother  of  Hon.  C.  R.  Valland- 
ingham,  of  Ohio)  was  in  the  midst  of  a  work  of  grace  in 
his  church,  and  was  assisted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Backus,  of 


200  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Baltimore.  I  stayed  from  day  to  day,  entering  fully  into 
the  spirit  of  the  meeting  with  youthful  ardor  and  anxious 
interest  in  many  friends.  The  influences  of  this  meeting 
extended  into  all  the  country  around.  Dr.  Backus  was 
obliged  to  return  to  Baltimore,  but  promised  Dr.  Valland- 
ingham  to  send  him  assistance. 

The  night  after  Dr.  Backus  left,  Dr.  Vallandingham 
preached  himself.  He  was  nearing  the  close  of  his  sermon, 
when  I,  sitting  near  some  friends  in  the  rear  of  the  church, 
perceived  that  a  gentleman,  evidently  a  minister,  had  slip- 
ped into  the  house  and  seated  himself  near  the  door.  There 
was  something  so  exceedingly  attractive  about  the  man's 
appearance,  his  entire  bearing  and  personal  grace  in  every 
movement,  that  my  attention  was  fixed  upon  him.  It  was 
soon  evident  to  me  that  Dr.  Vallandingham  had  seen  him 
enter.  He  closed  his  sermon  rather  abruptly,  gave  out  a 
hymn,  and  came  quietly  to  the  rear  of  the  church,  approach- 
ing this  gentleman,  who  arose  and  extended  his  hand  in  a 
peculiarly  impressive  manner.  I  heard,  as  the  two  stood 
there  hand  in  hand,  the  following  conversation :  "I  suppose 
you  are  a  brother  sent  by  Dr.  Backus  to  assist  me."  Dr. 
Hoge  replied,  "Yes,  I  am  Dr.  Hoge,^  and  I  thank  God  thai 
I  am  here.  I  met  Dr.  Backus  this  morning  on  the  street. 
He  told  me  of  the  wonderful  work  of  grace,  and  asked  me 
if  I  could  come  to  your  assistance.  I  had  but  a  few  hours 
to  meet  the  train;  but  I  hastened  home,  made  all  my  ar- 
rangements for  leaving,  and  am  here  now  to  help  you,  as 
far  as  God  may  give  me  the  power." 

Dr.  Vallandingham  then  said,  "Thank  God ;  you  are  the 
very  man  for  the  work.  Come  forward,  and  at  the  close  of 
the  hymn  make  an  address."  As  he  passed  to  the  platform, 
all  eyes  were  fixed  upon  him,  and  all  hearts,  no  doubt,  went 
up  for  God's  blessing  from  him.  As  the  singing  ceased,  I 
can  see  him  now,  as  he  stood  there,  the  embodiment  of  the 
true  Christian  minister  of  the  word  of  God  to  a  sinful 
world ;  and  from  the  moment  he  had  opened  his  mouth  he 
had  won  all  hearts. 

Dr.  Vallandingham  had  two  churches ;  one  in  town,  the 
other  in  the  country.    As  the  influence  of  the  meeting  had 

*  The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  not  conferred  upon  him  until 
he  became  professor  in  Union  Theological  Seminary.  The  mistake  is 
natural  on  the  part  of  one  writing  at  a  later  time. 


William  James  Hoge.  201 

extended  into  the  country,  arrangements  were  made  for 
preaching-  in  the  old  mother  church  out  in  the  country, 
"White  Clay  Creek,"  on  the  following  Sabbath,  morning 
and  afternoon.  This  church  was  one  of  those  in  which 
Whitefield  had  preached,  and  where,  as  elsewhere  under  his 
ministry,  many  souls  were  brought  to  Christ.  It  was  tra- 
ditional that  when  Whitefield  was  preaching  there,  doors 
open  and  windows  taken  out,  there  were  several  thousands 
gathered  in  the  church  and  on  the  ground  to  hear  the 
precious  gospel  from  his  lips,  and  that  on  a  certain  day, 
when  the  meeting  had  reached  its  climax,  large  numbers 
were  brought  to  Christ.  It  was  in  September  when  Dr. 
Hoge  was  there.  The  weather  was  beautiful,  and  no  larger 
or  more  impressive  audience  ever  faced,  possibly,  any 
preacher  of  God's  word  in  the  rural  districts  of  America. 

He  was  more  than  himself  on  that  marvellous  occasion, 
and  gave  to  us,  what  he  afterwards  preached  in  book  form, 
his  lovely  tract,  Blind  Bartinictis.  We  all  know  how  charm- 
ing that  book  is,  and  many  of  your  readers  have  often  been 
fascinated  by  and  swayed  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Hoge's 
preaching.  Possibly  some  of  them  may  have  heard  him 
preach  those  sermons ;  but  I  think  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  have  heard  him  preach  them  under  the  most  inspiring 
circumstances,  which  lifted  him  into  his  fullest  capacity. 
Well  and  gloriously  did  he  do  the  Master's  work  that  day 
in  winning  souls  to  Christ.  There  was  no  poor  Bartimeus, 
nor  was  there  a  rich  man  there,  who  did  not  feel  the  power 
•of  the  gospel.  He  preached  the  first  half  of  it  in  the  fore- 
noon, the  latter  half  in  the  afternoon.  He  closed  the  first 
discourse  with  the  remark,  "If  you  are  weary  and  hungry, 
we  will  close  this  sermon  with  the  benediction,  and  when 
you  hear  me  singing,  come  in  again." 

All  through  the  interval  there  was  such  solemn  impres- 
sion and  awakened  conviction,  that  there  were  not  many 
who  partook  of  the  midday  meal.  Every  man  and  every 
woman  was  intently  busy  with  his  or  her  thoughts  of  won- 
der and  of  praise  of  God's  great  grace,  or  was  striving  to 
"help  others  to  appreciate  in  like  manner  the  same.  All  at 
once  we  heard  his  rich  voice  singing  some  hymn  of  God, 
which  reached  to  the  recesses  of  the  forest  grounds ;  and 
the  great  crowd  silently  and  solemnly  gathered  about  the 
building  again.    There  they  stood  hanging  upon  his  words 


202  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

of  eloquence  and  pathos,  and  as  he  would  reach  climax 
after  climax  of  God's  wondrous  grace,  man  after  man  fell 
to  the  earth  as  if  stricken  with  death.  It  was  to  the  most 
of  them,  blessed  be  God,  death  to  sin  and  life  to  righteous- 
ness. I  do  not  know  how  many  united  with  the  several 
churches  of  that  community,  nor  what  were  the  results  of 
after  days  in  the  extension  and  permanency  of  God's  king- 
dom in  that  community;  but  such  seed  sown  must  have 
borne  rich  rewards  of  fruitfulness  to  the  glory  of  God. 

Into  my  own  life  came  an  ideal  of  the  gospel  minister 
and  the  far-reaching  powers  of  the  gospel  itself,  which  I 
trust  have  been  an  incentive  to  me  to  strive  to  preach  better 
than  I  would  otherwise  have  done. 

I  have  heard  many,  many  brethren,  some  gone  to  glory, 
and  some  still  living,  who  have  moved  me  ofttimes  to  high 
states  of  spiritual  joy  by  their  presentations  of  truth;  but 
I  have  never  heard  the  truth  preached  as  it  was  that  day  at 
old  White  Clay  Creek  Church,  in  Delaware,  by  Dr.  William 
J.  Hoge. 

The  little  book  referred  to  was  composed  of  sermons 
chiefly  preached  in  Baltimore,  but  finished  after  he  went  to 
Union  Seminary.  In  a  very  short  time  fifteen  thousand 
copies  had  been  issued  in  this  country,  and  forty  thousand  by 
one  of  the  several  British  publishers.  It  was  afterwards  pur- 
chased by  the  Tract  Society,  which  still  issues  new  editions. 
It  has  been  translated  into  Portuguese  and  modern  Greek, 
and  one  often  meets  with  men  who  attribute  to  it  their  con- 
version, or  ministers  who  testify  to  its  forming  influence  in 
their  views  of  gospel  truth. 

When  Dr.  Hoge  went  to  New  York,  he  went  with  the  old 
gospel.  In  his  preaching  he  knew  but  two  classes — the  saved 
and  the  unsaved.  A  "liberal"  member  of  the  congregation, 
soon  after  he  came,  remarked  to  a  friend  with  some  warmth, 
'Tf  our  new  pastor  keeps  on  preaching  so,  one  thing  is  cer- 
tain, he  will  empty  the  church  before  six  months  are  out." 
He  kept  on,  and  in  less  than  six  months  camp  chairs  had  to 
be  purchased  to  place  in  the  aisles,  and  he  never  preached 
that  the  church  was  not  packed. 


William  James  Hoge.  203, 

His  joy  in  this  ministry  we  have  ah'eady  seen  in  his  let- 
ters to  his  brother.  The  joy  of  others  in  his  ministry  is 
testified  to  this  day.  Before  him  stretched  a  prospect  of 
almost  boundless  usefulness.  He  was  still  in  the  flower  of 
his  youth ;  his  powers,  notwithstanding  their  early  maturity, 
were  constantly  expanding;  his  mind  poured  forth  its  treas- 
ures like  an  exhaustless  fountain ;  there  was  no  limit  to  his 
sympathies,  and  his  warm,  glowing  personality  impressed 
itself  directly  and  spontaneously,  like  light  or  heat.  The 
common  people  heard  him  gladly ;  and  no  less  gladly  the  cul- 
tured and  the  learned. 

When  the  shadow  of  the  war  fell  across  this  bright  pros- 
pect, his  soul  was  troubled.  His  heart  was  with  his  own 
people  in  the  South,  but  the  vows  of  God  were  upon  him, 
and  as  long  as  his  people  would  receive  the  gospel  at  his  lips, 
no  political  or  personal  consideration  could  be  allowed  ta 
break  the  bond.  The  things  of  the  kingdom  must  be  first. 
The  pulpits  of  the  city  were  ringing  with  politics;  he 
preached  the  gospel.  Crowds  greater  than  before  hung  on 
his  ministry,  for  there  were  thousands  in  that  great  city  who 
were  asking  for  bread  and  receiving  stones.  If  it  was  his 
mission  to  feed  them  he  would  stay  at  any  cost;  though 
friends  in  the  South  were  already  murmuring.  At  length 
there  came  a  day  when  his  colleague  had  declared  his  politi- 
cal views  in  the  morning  service,  and  an  expectant  crowd 
gathered  in  the  afternoon  to  hear  Dr.  Hoge,  thinking  that 
now  he  must  speak.  He  made  no  allusion  of  any  kind  to 
what  was  in  the  minds  of  all  until  he  gave  out  the  hymn  be- 
fore the  sermon.  It  was  Cowper's  well-known  hymn, 
"There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood."  He  read  until  he 
came  to  the  last  verse,  when  he  closed  the  book,  took  a  step 
back  from  the  pulpit,  and  repeated : 

"  Ere  since  by  faith  I  saw  the  stream 
Thy  flowing  wounds  supply, 
Redeeming  love  has  been  my  theme, 
And  shall  be  till  I  die." 


204  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

All  knew  then  that  they  would  get  no  politics  in  that  ser- 
mon! 

All  this  time  Dr.  Hoge  had  his  resignation  in  his  pocket 
waiting  for  some  sign  that  the  harmony  with  his  people  was 
broken.  At  last  it  came — no  matter  now,  how,  or  from 
whom.  His  resignation  was  offered,  and  accepted.  The 
newspaper  report  of  the  meeting  said  there  were  "about  one 
hundred  persons  present."  By  the  actual  count  of  one  of  the 
officers  of  the  church  there  were  thirty.^ 

And  so  this  effort  to  "seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
his  righteousness,"  even  in  these  stormy  times,  failed.  But 
one  may  feel  thankful  that  there  was  found  a  man  who  tried. 
Nor  was  the  effort  unappreciated.  The  church  to  which  he 
ministered  would  have  overwhelmingly  sustained  him  had 
he  let  it  come  to  an  issue.  Gentlemen  of  the  highest  stand- 
ing came  forward  with  the  proposition  to  build  him  a  church, 
and  meanwhile  rent  any  hall  in  the  city,  if  only  he  would 
remain  in  New  York.  Others  thought  that  when  the  war 
was  over — little  thinking  how  long  the  struggle  was  to  be, 
nor  how  wide  the  chasm  that  would  be  created;  thinking 
still  less  that  he  would  not  survive  it — that  when  the  war  was 
over,  they  would  "build  him  the  biggest  church  in  New 
York,  and  call  him  back." 

There  lies  before  us  now  a  pile  of  notes  and  letters ;  many 
of  them  from  members  of  his  church,  pouring  out  their 
hearts  in  love  and  gratitude  and  sorrow;  but  many  from 
strangers  commending  his  course,  and  deploring  the  mad- 
ness of  the  times  in  which  it  was  possible  that  "a  faithful 
minister  of  the  gospel  may  be  proscribed  for  his  private,  un- 
obtruded  political  views." 

His  farewell  discourse  was  delivered  on  the  21st  ol  July. 
It  was  a  calm  and  noble  testimony  against  the  preaching  of 

^  This  meeting  took  place  after  he  had  left  the  city.  His  friends  man- 
ifested their  sentiment  by  absenting  themselves  from  the  regular  meet- 
ing, and  by  a  separate  informal  meeting  in  which  they  endorsed  his 
course. 


William  James  Hoge.  205 

anything  but  the  rehgion  of  Christ  from  a  Christian  pulpit. 
As  the  turning  point  of  his  life,  and  a  reflection  of  the  times, 
a  few  extracts  will  not  be  inappropriate. 

In  defending  his  own  course,  he  states  that  as  a  citij^eii^  he 
had  first  studied  the  questions  of  the  day  and  formed  his 
own  opinions ;  that  as  a  free  citizen  in  a  free  republic,  he  had 
a  right,  not  questionable  by  any  other  citizen,  firmly  to  hold 
and  calmly  to  express  his  opinions ;  but  that  he  had  not  for- 
gotten, meantime,  that  he  was  also  a  minister  of  the  gospel, 
and  that  therefore  it  became  him  to  utter  his  opinions  unob- 
trusively, "giving  no  offense  in  anything  that  the  ministry 
be  not  blamed." 

As  a  preacher  of  God's  word  and  pastor  of  that  church,  his 
course  included  his  public  prayers  and  public  discourses.  In 
his  prayers  he  had  poured  out  his  soul  "with  tears  and  an- 
guish for  this  whole  land  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf, 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific."  He  had  prayed  for  the 
President  of  the  United  States  (though  the  contrary  had 
been  asserted)  and  for  all  in  authority.  He  had  also  prayed 
for  the  authorities  of  the  Confederate  States,  in  obedience 
to  the  divine  command  to  pray  for  all  men,  and  all  that  are 
in  authority. 

But  what  special  blessing  have  I  sought  for  all  these 
men,  North  and  South,  who  hold  so  much  of  our  happiness 
and  destiny  in  their  hands? 

That  in  every  heart  God  would  shine  and  reign ;  that 
they  might  have  wisdom  to  know  what  is  right,  and  grace 
to  do  what  is  right ;  that  all  that  is  wrong  in  any  of  them 
might  be  rectified,  and  all  that  is  right  confirmed ;  in  brief, 
that  all  rulers  and  all  people  in  this  broad  country  might 
fear  the  God  of  heaven,  and  so  be  guided  in  doing  his 
blessed  will  that  the  whole  land  and  the  whole  world  might 
be  filled  and  covered  with  the  divine  glory. 

Then,  as  to  your  beloved  sons  and  brothers,  your  tears 
and  audible  weeping  have,  more  than  once,  borne  me  wit- 
ness how  I  have  pleaded  that  they  might  be  preserved  from 
all  evil,  and  especially  from  sin ;  that  the  godly  among 
them  might  be  bright  in  grace  and  very  fruitful  in  right- 


2o6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

eousness ;  that  the  impenitent  might  be  prepared,  through 
grace,  for  all  the  perils  of  war;  and  that  God  would 
speedily  restore  them  all,  in  honor  and  righteousness,  to 
the  sweet  sanctities  of  home  and  the  house  of  God.  And  I 
have  added,  "Extend  these  blessings  to  all  who  are  dear  to 
any  of  us."  Was  not  this  right?  And  did  it  not  include 
many,  many,  dear  not  to  me  alone,  but  to  many  families  in 
this  congregation?  And  is  not  every  one  of  these  prayers 
according  to  the  law  and  spirit  of  Christ? 

And  now,  as  to  my  sermons :  they  have  simply  been,  as 
far  as  I  had  strength  to  make  them,  scriptural,  gospel 
.sermons. 

When  you  called  me  you  knew  me  only  from  testimony, 
from  my  sermon  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  from  another 
which  a  few  of  you  heard  in  the  late  Dr.  Alexander's 
lecture-room,  from  the  report  of  your  committee  who 
visited  me  in  Virginia,  and  from  a  little  book  which  many 
of  you  were  led  to  examine  at  that  time — Blind  Bartimeus. 
Now,  I  am  sure,  you  never  heard  of  me  as  a  preacher  of 
anything  but  the  gospel ;  and  in  the  volume  to  which  I 
have  referred,  you  read,  if  you  chose  to  read  it  at  all,  the 
following  language:  "They  have  let  him  (Bartimeus)  know 
that  the  Healer  of  the  blind  is  near;  and  I  am  sure  that 
nothing  they  could  say  about  anything  else  could  make  up 
for  not  telling  him  that.  The  most  eloquent  harangue  on 
the  politics  of  the  times,  though  Pilate  and  Herod  and 
Caesar,  and  Roman  eagles,  and  Jewish  banners,  and  liberty, 
and  nationality  and  destiny,  had  rolled  with  splendid  im- 
agery through  sounding  periods,  would  have  been  a  sad 
exchange  for  those  simple  words,  'Jesus  of  Nazareth  pass- 
eth  by.'  Nor  would  Aristotle's  keenest  logic,  nor  Plato's 
finest  speculations,  have  served  a  whit  better.  The  man 
was  blind,  and  wanted  his  eyes  opened ;  and  till  this  was 
done,  these  things,  however  set  forth,  were  but  trash  and 
mockery." 

In  a  series  of  incontrovertible  propositions  he  sets  forth 
the  evils  of  political  preaching,  and  concludes : 

I  fear  we  are  just  beginning  to  reap  the  bitter  fruits 
which  political  preaching  and  political  action  in  our  eccle- 
siastical courts  are  to  bring  forth.  I  dare  not  omit  saying 
this.    I  would  lift  my  poor  voice  and  warn  my  countrymen, 


William  James  Hoge.  207 

and  especially  my  countrymen  in  the  more  blessed  citizen- 
ship of  Zion.  May  God  raise  mightier  voices  than  mine 
everywhere  to  sound  the  alarm  before  all  our  churches  are 
made  fearful  and  scandalous  spectacles  of  strife  and  con- 
fusion, and  God's  blessed  Spirit  is  grieved  utterly  away ! 

That  the  majority  of  this  people  agree  with  me  here,  I 
hope.  I  believe.  They  do  not  agree  politically  with  me, 
but  they  feel  that  this  should  not  part  us  while  I  love  them 
and  preach  Christ  to  them. 

And  God  knows  my  heart,  that  I  do  love  them,  and  with 
a  fervor  I  cannot  express.  Why  should  I  not?  My 
brethren,  you  have  been  kind  to  me  with  a  kindness  which 
I  shall  remember  gratefully  forever.  I  may  not  forget  the 
night  of  my  sudden  calamity,^  and  the  day  of  your  rallying 
around  me  with  a  unanimity  and  generosity  which  well- 
nigh  took  away  my  power  to  thank  you.  Nor  does  this 
great  manifestation  of  your  generous  love  stand  alone. 
My  whole  pathway,  even  to  this  hour,  has  been  covered 
with  it.  Nay,  its  manifested  depths  and  tenderness  at  this 
hour  make  this  farewell  service  the  heaviest  task  of  my 
life. 

Wherever  my  lot  may  be  cast,  I  feel,  and  my  family  feel 
it  equally,  that  we  can  never  be  surrounded  by  a  people 
in  whose  noble  faithfulness  and  love  our  hearts  could 
repose  with  more  comfort,  even  to  the  end  of  life. 

Why,  then,  do  I  go?  I  have  been  constantly  met  with 
the  sad  inquiry  from  those  whose  grief,  in  the  sundering 
of  this  solemn  relation,  is  too  sacred  to  be  slighted.  "Why 
is  this?  What  have  we  done  that  we  should  lose  our 
pastor  without  an  opportunity  to  protest  or  prevent?"  A 
deep  feeling  of  undeserved  injury  seems  to  pervade  many 
hearts,  and  I  have  no  right  to  leave  the  burden  of  this 
injury  anywhere  but  just  where  it  belongs. 

I  will  first,  for  I  have  nothing  to  conceal,  say  that,  ever 
since  the  beginning  of  this  national  conflict,  my  heart  has 
yearned  towards  my  beloved  South,  and  especially  the  dear 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia.  I  have  longed  to  share  their 
privations,  their  dangers,  and  their  destiny,  whether  of  hu- 
miliation or  triumph;  but  all  these  feelings  I  was  ready 
to  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  Christ  and  His  cause.    And  I  did 

'When  his  house  was  burned  to  the  ground,  with  all  its  contents, 
his  family  only  escaping  with  their  lives. 


2o8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

sacrifice  them.  God  gave  me  the  joyous  capacity  to  absorb 
myself  in  my  work  as  a  Christian  minister.  Having  abun- 
dantly declared,  by  my  conduct  and  in  this  discourse,  that 
I  place  this  sacred  relation  of  pastor  and  people  above 
every  national  question,  I  could  never  have  severed  it  for 
such  a  cause  as  this,  weighty  though  I  feel  it  to  be  in  itself. 

Then  in  a  few  words  he  stated,  with  delicate  considera- 
tion for  others,  the  steps  that  led  to  his  resignation,  and  the 
reasons  why  he  must  insist  upon  it  even  should  an  over- 
whelming majority  vote  against  it.  That  which  had  occur- 
red had  been  sufficient  to  make  his  way  plain : 

For  weeks  past  my  incessant  cry  to  God  has  been  for 
light,  that  I  might  know  my  duty,  just  my  duty.  It  has 
been  a  time  of  great  perplexity ;  but  I  believe  God  has  an- 
swered my  prayer.  The  light  shines.  My  path  is  plain. 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  taking  it.  "The  Lord  is  my  shep- 
herd."   He  is  "my  light  and  my  salvation." 

While  he  was  preaching  this  sermon  the  battle  of  Ma- 
nassas was  raging.  The  next  afternoon  had  been  set  for  a 
farewell  reception  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  Meanwhile 
the  news  of  the  battle  had  come,  and  he  expected  that  the 
attendance  would  be  confined  to  his  most  intimate  friends; 
but  they  came  in  such  numbers  that  they  had  to  resort  to  a 
larger  room,  where  the  stream  continued  to  flow  for  four 
hours.  Now  and  then  there  would  be  one  whose  joy  in  the 
Southern  victory  would  show  itself  in  a  flash  of  the  eye  and 
a  more  convulsive  grasp  of  the  hand,  but-  the  most  of  those 
who  came  were  in  sympathy  with  the  Union,  but  came  to  say 
farewell  to  the  man  that  they  loved  and  honored,  and  espe- 
cially to  endorse  the  stand  he  had  taken  for  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  great  lobbies  of  the  hotel,  a  vast  and 
excited  crowd  were  discussing  the  tremendous  issues  of  the 
day,  and  getting  wind  of  what  was  going  on  upstairs,  at- 
tempted to  ridicule  by  mocking  placards,  or  to  interrupt  by 
their  noisy  presence,  the  quiet  of  these  solemn  farewells ;  but 


William  James  Hoge.  209 

by  the  vigilance  of  the  proprietor  and  some  of  the  gentlemen 
who  were  present  all  serious  annoyance  was  avoided.  In  the 
excited  state  of  public  feeling  a  spark  might  have  kindled  a 
conflagration. 

The  next  day  he  started  with  his  family  ^  on  the  long 
journey  through  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee,  a  faithful  friend  accompanying  them  to 
Nashville  to  see  that  they  were  not  interfered  with  while  in 
the  Northern  lines.  By  this  detour  they  at  length  reached 
Richmond  in  safety. 

But  on  the  long,  sad  journey  they  had  their  first  terrible 
realization  of  what  the  war  meant,  and  at  what  a  price  vic- 
tory had  been  purchased.  In  the  list  of  the  killed  they  saw 
first  the  names  of  two  dear  cousins  of  Mrs.  Hoge — the  only 
nephews  of  her  mother — and  then  of  her  beloved  brother, 
Peyton  Randolph  Harrison. 

Within  the  quiet  haven  of  his  brother's  home  in  Rich- 
mond their  hearts  were  made  to  glow  with  pride  in  the 
midst  of  their  deep  sorrow,  as  he  tenderly  told  the  thrilling 
story  of  how  her  brother  and  cousins  had  died — successfully 
rallying  their  company,  thrown  into  confusion  and  almost 
retreat  by  a  mistaken  order;  and  how,  when  they  were  bear- 
ing Lieutenant  Harrison  from  the  field,  he  said,  "Lay  me 
down;  I  am  ready  to  die;  you  can  do  no  more  for  me. 
Rally  to  tJie  charge!" 

But  another  sacrifice  was  before  them.  Their  beautiful 
little  Dabney,  wilting  under  the  heat  and  fatigue  of  the  long 
journey  and  change  of  climate,  sickened  and  died.  In  this 
bereavement  nothing  could  exceed  the  delicate  consideration 
and  sympathy  of  his  brother  Moses  and  his  family.  By  a 
happy  Providence,  Mrs.  Hoge's  brother,  Dabney  Carr  Har- 

'  His  family  then  consisted,  besides  Mrs.  Hoge,  of  the  two  older 
children,  whose  births  were  announced  on  page  108.  and  three  children 
of  his  second  marriage;  Mary  Swift  (named  for  his  first  wife),  born  in 
Baltimore,  October  15,  1855;  Peyton  Harrison,  born  at  Hampden- 
Sidney,  January  6,  1858,  and  Dabney  Carr,  born  in  New  York,  February 
24,  i860. 


2IO  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

rison,  was  there,  and  thus  the  last  time  they  saw  him  was 
when  he  assisted  in  laying  his  little  namesake  to  rest.  They 
buried  him  in  beautiful  Hollywood,  where  Dr.  Moses  Hoge's 
two  babes  were  already  sleeping — in  the  spot  where  so  many 
of  the  hearts,  then  torn  and  sad,  have  since  found  their  rest- 
ing place. 

Passing  through  Richmond  a  few  weeks  later,  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Hoge  wrote  his  wife : 

At  six  o'clock  of  this  balmy,  golden  evening,  Moses  took 
me  in  his  buggy  to  Hollywood.  We  reached  the  grave 
about  the  same  time  as  when  we  went  to  lay  our  little 
darling  there.  As  we  stopped  by  it,  I  exclaimed,  "Oh !  it 
has  been  covered  this  evening  with  fresh  flowers,"  while 
my  eyes  filled  with  tears;  "did  you  do  it,  brother?"  He 
smiled  pleasantly,  but  said  nothing.  I  pressed  his  hand 
tenderly,  and  then  got  out  and  took  my  seat  by  the  lowly 
bed  of  our  pretty  little  boy.  With  delicate  consideration  he 
drove  away,  and  left  me  to  press  and  kiss  the  little  precious 
mound  unobserved.  All  the  loose  earth  had  been  removed, 
and  the  place  looked  clean  and  fresh.  The  mound  had 
been  newly  made,  of  finer  mould,  free  from  stones.  The 
original  wreaths,  faded  indeed,  were  in  their  old  places, 
while  fresh  roses  and  evergreens  had  been  added.  I  was 
moved  by  these  tokens  of  delicate  care.  I  longed  for  you, 
that  we  might  share  together  the  melancholy  luxury  of 
musing  there,  and  caressing  even  the  earth  and  flowers 
that  cover  that  precious  form.  The  river  was  roaring  on 
as  ever,  and  the  blessed  evening  was  bathing  our  little 
one's  resting  place  with  freshness,  fragrance  and  beauty. 
I  found  that  brother  had  risen  from  his  half-eaten  dinner, 
driven  out  there,  found  a  workman  who  brought  the  softer 
mould  and  disposed  it  at  his  direction,  while  his  hands 
had  gathered  and  arranged  the  fresh  flowers.  I  send 
you  what  I  selected  for  you.  Dear,  good  brother !  he  did 
this  just  before  having  to  lecture,  and  then  took  the  drive 
again. 

Dr.  Hoge  was  soon  settled  in  temporary  charge  of  the 
Charlottesville  church,  but  there  the  sorrows  of  his  wife's 
family,  which  was  as  his  own,  fell  thick  and  fast.    The  death 


William  James  Hoge.  211 

of  her  brother  Dabney  at  Fort  Donelson  was  quickly  fol- 
lowed by  that  of  a  lovely  young  sister,  just  blooming  into 
womanhood;  and  this  by  the  death  of  another  sister — the 
bride  of  a  year — whose  marriage  in  the  Brick  Church  to 
Major  R.  W.  Hunter,  an  officer  in  the  Virginia  Volunteers, 
had  excited  a  peculiar  and  pathetic  interest  among  those  who 
read  the  signs  of  the  times.  Another  year  passed  and  her 
eldest  brother,  Randolph,  was  added  to  the  list  of  those 
whom  they  gave  to  the  Confederate  cause.  With  all  this 
sorrow.  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  to  his  brother:  "Yet  our  gracious, 
covenant-keeping  God  has  so  been  with  us  in  trouble,  guid- 
ing, sustaining,  cheering  us,  and  crowning  us  with  loving- 
kindness,  that  our  hearts  would  be  cold  and  base  indeed,  if 
we  did  not  acknowledge  his  mercy  with  thankfulness  and 
joy."  So  overflowing,  indeed,  were  his  sympathies  that 
there  were  no  circumstances  in  which  his  character  shone 
out  with  purer  light  than  when  he  was  comforting  those 
hearts  filled  with  sorrow,  and  lifting  up  the  eyes  of  the 
afflicted  to  the  loving  face  of  the  Saviour,  who  was  all  in  all 
to  him. 

In  Charlottesville,  too,  he  had  congenial  society  in  which 
he  took  great  delight.  Dr.  McGuffey,  under  whom  he  had 
studied  theology  in  Athens,  Ohio,  was  ever  a  stimulating 
companion.  He  spent  one  summer  in  the  house  with  Dr. 
Gildersleeve,  studying  with  him  the  Gospel  of  John,  enjoy- 
ing his  exquisite  linguistic  insight,  and  contributing  himself 
no  less  exquisite  spiritual  comment. 

And  when  occasion  arose,  all  the  natural  joyousness  of 
his  nature  bubbled  up,  and  he  could  be  a  boy  again.  He  was 
always  so  with  children;  and  among  men  no  one  more 
enjoyed  a  flow  of  spontaneous,  innocent  fun. 

Once  a  rumor  of  a  hostile  raid  called  out  the  "reserves" 
to  protect  the  town.  The  rumor  proved  a  mistake,  but 
while  they  were  waiting  he  dispatched  this  note  by  his  son 
Addison,  who  came  out  with  Theodorick  Pryor  to  bring  the 
acknowledged  dinner : 


212  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Camp  "Micawber"  (so  named  by  Frank  Carr  because 
we  are  waiting  for  "something  to  turn  up.") 

Monday,  May  4,  1863. 

Give  many  thanks,  my  darling,  to  Mrs.  H for  her 

excellent  and  abundant  dinner.  It  was  spread  on  a  mossy 
bank,  dappled  by  sunshine  and  shade.  Very  choice  was  the 
company  which  partook  of  it— Cousin  Frank,  Professor 
Minor,  Professor  Holmes,  Professor  Smith,  and  Mr. 
Stevenson,  of  Petersburg.  Of  course,  we  had  much  "attic 
salt"  to  season  our  viands — apt  quotations,  nice  allusions, 
snatches  of  song,  not  to  speak  of  puns.  Just  this  moment, 
for  example,  I  hear  Professor  Smith  saying,  "The  trees  are 
all  leaving,  but  the  men  are  standing  firm."  "Or  rather," 
suggests  Professor  Holmes,  in  allusion  to  the  false  rumors 
flying  so  thickly,  "the  men  are  lying  still." 

There  seems  to  be  little  prospect  of  our  seeing  the  enemy, 
though  it  is  difficult  to  learn,  with  any  certainty,  his  move- 
ments. As  soon  as  we  knozv  they  are  not  coming,  I  suppose 
we  will  march  home  and  our  campaign  be  ended. 

But  his  greatest  joy  in  these  times  was  found  in  his  trips 
to  the  camps  to  preach  to  the  soldiers.  An  extract  from  his 
"journalized"  letter  to  his  wife  of  one  of  these  visits  will  be 

of  interest : 

Major-General  Rodes'  Headquarters, 

Friday,  May  22,  1863. 
[After  telling  of  his  call  to  the  Tabb  Street  Church,  Petersburg,  he 
takes  up  his  narrative.] 

Now  let  me  take  up  my  story  where  I  laid  it  down  last 
Monday.  That  day  I  rested  firom  my  Sabbath  labor,  and 
attended  a  review  of  the  whole  division.  The  ladies  and  I 
occupied  an  eminence  which  commanded  the  whole  field. 
The  day  was  fine,  the  bands  played  well,  and  the  young 
general  acquitted  himself  very  handsomely.  The  whole 
affair  rather  surpassed  my  expectations. 

Tuesday  opened  my  regular  campaign.  Did  I  tell  you 
the  General's  admirable  plan  for  my  work?  I  have  heard 
of  none  like  it  in  the  army,  and  it  seems  to  me  all  that  any 
general  could  do,  or  any  preacher  wish.  A  preaching  camp 
is  prepared  by  the  pioneer  corps  in  each  brigade,  and  the 
whole  brigade,  officers  and  men,  are  marched  to  the  place. 
This  always  secures  me  a  good  audience,  and,  as  it  takes 
the  place  of  regular  drill,  is  acceptable,  I  understand,  to  all 


William  James  Hoge.  213 

concerned.  How  I  wish  you  could  see  my  "Alabama 
Church,"  in  General  Rodes'  old  brigade !  I  wanted  you  so 
much  to  be  there  at  the  opening  services.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
beautiful  spot,  on  a  sloping  hill-side  in  a  shady  grove.  The 
hill  curves  around  somewhat  in  the  form  of  an  amphi- 
theatre, and  when  I  stand  on  my  substantial  rustic  pulpit, 
a  sea  of  faces  rises  around  me  in  the  best  possible  position 
for  hearing.  All  the  men  were  Alabamians,  and  seemed 
charmed  with  the  name  I  gave  the  church.  I  spoke  to 
them  of  their  beautiful  State  and  river,  and  strove  to  touch 
their  hearts  with  the  memory  of  their  homes  and  houses 
of  worship ;  then  of  the  musical  beauty  of  the  Indian  word, 
"Alabama;"  of  its  traditional  meaning,  "Here  we  rest;" 
of  the  appropriateness  of  applying  it  to  this  green  and 
shady  hillside,  which  we  were  about  to  consecrate  to  the 
worship  of  the  God  of  peace;  of  the  providential  mercy, 
which,  having  sheltered  them  amidst  the  horrible  tempest 
of  battle,  had  brought  them  to  this  quiet  resting  spot,  and 
these  gracious  services ;  of  my  hope  that  here  they  might 
find  rest  for  their  souls,  from  all  the  perturbations  of  an 
evil  conscience,  rest  at  the  mercy-seat,  rest  at  the  cross, 
which  was  now  to  be  planted  here;  that  this  spot  might 
be  hallowed  evermore  in  the  memory  of  many  a  man  as  the 
place  of  his  spiritual  birth,  and  so  become  "Alabama"  to 
his  heart  in  a  new  and  precious  sense ;  and  that,  as  this 
sweet  Indian  word  had  been  adopted  into  our  Christian 
speech,  so  it  might  be  consecrated  with  a  yet  higher  bap- 
tism, and  find  its  place  in  the  language  of  Canaan,  when 
they  should  forever  rest  in  the  blessedness  of  that  rest 
which  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God. 

Wednesday  I  had  a  pleasant  service  in  General  Ram- 
seur's  brigade,  and  yesterday  a  very  laborious  one  in  Gen- 
eral Dole's  brigade.  For  the  first  time,  we  had  a  hot  day, 
and  his  camp  had  little  shade.  This  caused  the  men  to 
scatter  a  good  deal  to  get  seats  out  of  the  sun,  and  made  it 
a  great  effort  to  speak  to  them.  To-day  I  rest.  In  Ram- 
seur's  brigade  we  had  a  brass  band,  which  plays  sacred 
music  as  an  accompaniment  to  the  singers.  It  has  a  very 
inspiring  sound  in  the  forest. 

On  Tuesday,  I  attended  the  chaplains'  regular  weekly 
meetings,  after  my  preaching,  and  found  it  delightful  and 
edifying.  Some  of  them  made  me  cry,  and  I  made  some  of 
them  cry. 


214  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

The  move  to  Petersburg,  which  took  place  the  following- 
fall,  had  many  advantages  that  he  highly  prized.  Not  only 
was  the  Tabb  Street  Church  one  of  the  most  important 
churches  in  Virginia,  but  the  military  operations  that  year 
made  Petersburg  the  centre  for  large  bodies  of  troops,  and 
gave  him  the  opportunity  he  most  coveted,  of  preaching  to 
the  soldiers.  One  of  the  pictures  that  stands  out  amid  the 
memories  of  childhood  is  that  church  and  its  Sunday  congre- 
gation. The  body  of  the  large  audience-room  filled  with 
the  members  of  the  church  and  the  people  of  the  city,  with 
here  and  there  the  uniform  of  an  army  officer;  the  gallery 
to  the  preacher's  left  filled  with  long  rows  of  dusky  faces, 
while  that  on  his  right  was  banked  with  rank  upon  rank  of 
gray  uniforms.  When  they  rose  to  prayer,  they  looked  like 
a  line  of  battle.  And  in  the  feast  that  he  always  spread  be- 
fore them  there  was  something  for  all — for  citizens  and  sol- 
diers, for  the  humble  slave,  and  even  for  the  little  children. 
The  church,  that  had  been  troubled  by  dissensions,  was 
melted  into  love  and  unity  by  the  outpouring  of  his  great, 
loving  heart;  the  soldier  went  back  to  his  camp  stronger  for 
duty  or  danger,  with  quickened  memories  of  his  home,  and 
quickened  hopes  of  a  home  in  heaven;  the  slave  was  made 
to  feel  that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free; 
and  the  little  child  learned  to  love  the  Good  Shepherd,  who 
gave  his  life  for  the  sheep  and  gathered  the  lambs  with  his 
arms. 

But  while  his  pulpit  and  pastoral  work  were  enough  to 
absorb  his  energies,  he  spent  himself  in  preaching  in  the 
camps  and  visiting  the  hospitals.  With  sick  and  dying  men 
all  around  him,  how  could  he  spare  himself,  when  he  knew 
that  wherever  he  went  he  carried  w^ith  him  balm  and  help 
and  healing?  The  springs  of  his  apparently  exhaustless 
vitality  began  to  run  low — but  still  he  toiled  on.  At  last 
disease  laid  its  hand  upon  him,  and  he  had  to  stop.  In  ordi- 
nary times  he  could  have  recovered,  but  Grant's  movement 
on  Richmond  from  the  South  had  begun;    Petersburg  be- 


William  James  Hoge.  215 

came  the  storm  centre,  and  the  enemy  were  shelling  the  town. 
The  physician  said  he  must  be  moved,  and  in  an  army  ambu- 
lance he  was  taken  to  "Dellwood,"  the  hospitable  home  of 
Mr.  James  Jones,  in  Chesterfield.  Soon  after,  both  the 
church  and  the  manse  were  struck  by  shells. 

At  first  the  fresher  air  of  the  country  seemed  to  fevive 
him.  But  his  physician  was  taken  ill,  the  army  surgeon 
called  in  was  ignorant,  and  to  that  ignorance  he  was  sac- 
rificed. When  his  own  physician  could  come  to  him  again, 
it  was  too  late.  But  God  rules,  and  from  that  painful  subject 
let  us  turn  to  the  glory  of  that  dying  chamber.  His  brother 
published  the  story  at  the  time,  with  a  sketch  of  his  life  and 
character  by  Dr.  Moore,  under  the  title,  "The  Victory  Won," 
and  circulated  it  in  the  army : 

When  I  entered  his  chamber,  after  embracing  me  ten- 
derly, his  first  words  were :  "Brother,  there  has  been  much 
that  was  bitter  in  this  dispensation,  but  I  would  not  have 
escaped  it  if  I  could,  because  it  has  taught  me  so  much  of 
the  love  of  Christ.  More  confidently  than  ever  can  I  say,  I 
knozv  that  I  love  Him." 

He  seemed  physically  stronger  than  I  expected  to  find 
him,  and  so  natural  was  his  appearance,  so  cheerful,  and 
occasionally  even  playful,  was  his  conversation,  that  I  was 
inclined  to  hope  he  might  yet  recover.  This  hope  was 
strengthened  by  the  conviction  that  the  God  in  whose  ser- 
vice he  delighted  would  not  cut  him  off  in  the  flower  of  his 
days  and  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness,  while  so  great  a 
work  for  the  country  and  the  church  remained  yet  to  be 
accomplished. 

But  the  next  day  (Monday)  he  was  evidently  much 
worse.  He  was  passing  through  deep  waters.  Occasionally 
his  mind  wandered,  but  a  remark  made  to  him,  especially 
on  any  religious  topic,  would  quickly  recall  him  to  his  con- 
sciousness, and  he  would  become  quite  rational  again. 

But  the  springs  of  life  were  giving  way,  and  there  was 
much  concurrent  mental  depression.  He  did  not  indeed 
utter  any  expression  intimating  the  slightest  spiritual  de- 
jection, but  he  said  so  little  that  was  indicative  of  the  con- 
trary that  I  frequently  found  myself  asking,  during  the 


2i6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

day,  whether  it  was  probable  that  he  would  be  permitted 
to  pass  away  without  communicating  his  feelings  in  ref- 
erence to  death,  and  his  wishes  in  our  behalf,  so  soon  to  be 
separated  from  him.  Without  attaching  any  undue  im- 
portance to  death-bed  exercises,  where  the  life  has  been 
eminently  Christian,  still  I  could  not  but  hope  that  God 
would  permit  one  whose  piety  was  so  mature,  whose  love  to 
Christ  was  so  absorbing,  and  whose  spiritual  tone  had  been 
habitually  so  elevated  and  joyous,  to  leave  behind  him  some 
dying  testimony  that  might  add  to  the  consolation  of  sur- 
vivors. But  not  upon  this  day  was  it  given  him  to  bear 
such  testimony  as  our  hearts  craved,  although  there  was 
much  in  his  conversation  that  denoted  humble  acquies- 
cence in  the  divine  will  and  earnest  devotion  to  the  divine 
glory. 

The  morning  of  Tuesday,  the  5th,  dawned  in  cloudless 
beauty.  The  increasing  light  revealed  the  change  which 
a  single  night  had  wrought  in  his  appearance.  He  was 
evidently  sinking,  and  yet  the  expression  of  physical  dis- 
tress which  his  face  had  worn  the  previous  day  had  entirely 
passed  away.  His  eye  was  bright,  his  countenance  was 
serene,  and  his  intellect  unclouded.  When  he  saw  me 
sitting  at  his  bedside,  he  greeted  me  lovingly,  and  began  to 
remark  upon  the  extreme  beauty  of  the  opening  morning. 
His  love  of  nature,  cultivated  and  developed  by  communion 
with  the  great  Author  of  nature,  and  by  the  study  of 
whatever  was  beautiful  in  His  works,  was  to  him  a  source 
of  universal  enjoyment.  From  the  window  near  which  he 
lay,  he  could  look  out  upon  the  waving  woods  and  the 
transparent  sky,  and  drinking  in  refreshment  from  the 
scene,  he  began,  as  his  custom  "was,  to  admire  these  man- 
ifestations of  the  glory  of  God  as  displayed  in  His  visible 
creation. 

Yet  placid  and  peaceful  as  he  was,  there  were  unmistak- 
able indications  that  he  would  probably  not  see  the  noon  of 
the  day  which  had  dawned  so  tranquilly,  and  his  family  and 
friends  and  the  servants  of  the  household  began  to  assem- 
ble in  his  room. 

Looking  around,  he  asked,  "Why  are  so  many  of  you 
gathered  about  me  at  this  early  hour  of  the  day?"  I  re- 
plied, "Because  the  doctor  tells  us  that  you  are  not  to  be 
with  us  much  longer,  and  we  wish  to  be  near  you  while  we 


William  James  Hoge.  217 

can,  and  to  hear  whatever  you  may  desire  to  say  at  such 
a  time." 

"Is  it  decided,"  he  asked,  "that  I  am  near  my  end?"  I 
told  him  that  was  the  doctor's  opinion.  He  smiled  very 
sweetly,  and  said,  "Could  I  have  my  way  I  would  go  to 
heaven  now — nozv"  (looking  up  and  clasping  his  hands)  ; 
^'how  sweet  it  would  be  to  be  permitted  to  go  at  once,  and 
be  with  my  Saviour.  And  yet  I  am  somewhat  surprised 
at  this  announcement,  for  I  passed  such  a  comfortable 
night,  and  am  so  free  from  pain  this  morning  that  I  do  not 
feel  as  if  I  were  dying.  Had  I  known  it  sooner,  I  might 
have  spent  more  time  in  prayer,  but  there  has  been  no  hour 
in  which  I  could  not  say,  'Father,  thy  will  be  done.'  "  Then 
his  thoughts  were  evidently  attracted  heavenward  again, 
and  toward  Him  who  had  been  the  supreme  object  of  his 
love  and  the  chief  theme  of  his  preaching,  for  he  added,  "I 
could  tell  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  of  many  wonderful 
authors  and  poets,  but  they  are  all  comparatively  low  down 
— Christ !   Christ !   Oh  !  the  glory  of  Christ !" 

I  will  not  lift  the  veil  which  should  rest  upon  his  parting 
interview  with  the  members  of  his  immediate  family,  nor 
attempt  to  describe  the  unutterable  tenderness  of  the  scene. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  these  addresses  were  unspeakably 
touching  and  solemn,  almost  entirely  scriptural  in  their 
phraseology  (unconsciously  so),  and  strikingly  adapted  to 
the  different  ages,  trials  and  duties  of  each.  His  servants 
were  not  forgotten  in  these  parting  admonitions.  They 
belonged  to  a  class  to  whom  it  was  his  special  delight  to 
preach  while  in  health,  and  now,  in  his  dying  counsels,  he 
affectionately  remembered  them. 

After  expressing  his  warm  personal  regard  to  his  physi- 
cians, and  his  earnest  wishes  for  their  spiritual  welfare, 
lie  exclaimed,  "Oh !  that  all  physicians  were  faithful  in 
trying  to  bring  their  patients  to  Christ,"  and  then  he  added, 
■"Why  are  not  ministers  more  plain  and  simple  in  their  pre- 
sentation of  the  plan  of  salvation?"  and  then  (illustrating 
with  the  finger  of  one  hand  upon  the  open  palm  of  the 
other,  the  imaginary  positions  he  assigned  to  each)  he  said, 
■"Here  stands  the  sinner,  and  here  the  Saviour  inviting  him 
to  come.  All  that  the  sinner  has  to  do  is  to  pass  from  this 
point  to  this,  and  the  work  is  done.  The  way  of  life  is  just 
as  simple  as  that." 


2i8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

After  sending  loving  messages  to  many  absent  relations 
and  friends,  and  expressing  the  hope  that  his  death  would 
be  sanctified  to  the  conversion  of  some  in  whom  he  felt  a 
peculiar  interest,  he  requested  that  preparation  should  be 
made  for  the  baptism  of  his  little  son  William,^  an  infant 
about  four  months  old.  While  these  were  making,  he  said, 
"My  death  will  be  as  easy  as  the  baptism  of  this  child. 
Both  death  and  baptism  are  consecrations  to  the  Lord." 
When  all  was  ready,  he  did  not  wait  for  me  to  propound 
the  usual  questions,  but,  in  a  manner  inexpressibly  tender 
and  reverential,  he  pronounced  the  vows  for  himself  and 
wife;  and  after  the  service  was  over,  he  said,  "Now  take 
my  little  boy  and  place  him  in  the  sunlight !"  I  took  him  to 
the  window,  where  the  beams  of  the  rising  sun  were  shin- 
ing brightly,  and  held  the  child  for  a  few  moments  in  the 
immediate  rays.  He  had  just  pronounced  upon  him  the 
Old  Testament  benediction,  containing  the  words,  "The 
Lord  make  his  face  to  shine  upon  you !"  He  gazed  at  him 
with  unutterable  fondness  and  admiration,  while,  with  bare 
arms  and  head  illumined  by  the  radiance  as  with  a  halo,  he 
disported  himself  in  the  fresh  air  and  golden  light  of  the 
morning,  and  then  said,  "Does  not  his  face  shine  like  sil- 
ver ?    That  is  what  it  is  for  His  face  to  shine  upon  us."  ^ 

He  then  dictated  the  following  message  to  his  church 
and  its  elders : 

"My  dear  people,  I  have  not  preached  to  you  as  I  ex- 
pected and  would  have  done  in  a  more  quiet  and  regular 
pastorate.  I  have  not  presented  such  trains  of  thought,  or 
discussed  truths  in  as  thorough  and  orderly  manner  as  I 
desired.  My  preaching  has  been  less  doctrinal  and  sys- 
tematic than  was  my  purpose.  My  reason  for  this  is,  that  I 
have  had  to  'preach  to  the  times,'  using  that  phrase  in  its 
best  sense — in  the  sense  of  having  to  comfort  and  encour- 
age the  afflicted,  and  often  I  have  found  my  church  so  full 
of  soldiers  that  I  have  had  to  turn  aside  and  preach  ex- 
clusively to  them."  Just  here  his  voice  grew  weaker,  and 
I  could  not  catch  some  sentences  expressive  of  affection 
for  the  people  of  his  charge,  and  his  sense  of  their  kindness 
to  him.    He  then  resumed,  "The  elders  which  are  among 

'  Born  in  Petersburg,  March  i,  1864. 

'  Dr.  Hoge  failed  to  catch  this,  and  in  the  published  sketch  it  was 
narrated  somewhat  differently. 


WiLLTAM  James  Hoge.  219 

you,  I  exhort,  who  am  also  an  elder,  feed  the  flock  of  God. 
The  burden  now  comes  heavy  upon  you.  You  bear  it 
alone."  And  then  followed  a  message  to  them  of  a  private 
nature,  which  I  need  not  here  repeat. 

After  his  pillows  were  readjusted  and  a  change  made  in 
his  position  in  the  bed,  and  some  refreshment  was  admin- 
istered to  him,  he  made  this  singular  observation,  "There 
are  many  little  things  which  seem  insignificant  in  them- 
selves, but  which  are  done  for  my  comfort,  which  give  me 
pleasure  from  the  thought  that  I  shall  now  have  no  more 
need  of  thiSj  and  now  I  am  done  with  that  forever." 

These,  and  other  conversations  not  here  related,  continued 
during  the  morning,  interspersed  with  intervals  of  silence — 
silence  occasionally  broken  by  the  disiant  thunder  of  the 
guns  of  the  enemy,  shelling  the  town — in  which  he  seemed 
absorbed  in  meditation  and  communion  with  God,  when 
only  his  lips  moved,  and  no  sound  could  be  heard.  After 
one  of  these  pauses  he  requested  that  tlTe  seventh  chapter 
of  Revelation  should  be  read,  commencing  with  the  ninth 
verse,  "After  this,  I  beheld,  and  lo  !  a  great  multitude  which 
no  man  could  number,"  etc.  As  I  read  it  slowly,  his  hands 
were  extended,  and  his  face  beamed  with  a  light  and  joy 
almost  seraphic.  When  I  ended,  he  said,  "That  almost  car- 
ried me  away.  I  was  there  among  the  heavenly  worship- 
pers. The  remnant  of  my  poor  body  is  here,  I  know,  but 
I  was  with  them  in  spirit,  and  I  saw  it — I  saw  it.  That 
chapter  is  enough — all  that  is  blessed  is  there.  Well  did  I 
say  this  is  a  glorious  morning.  There  is  more  to  attract 
me  to  heaven  than  to  bind  me  to  earth,  and  yet  there  are 
many  on  earth  still  very  dear  to  me." 

As  eleven  o'clock  approached,  he  desired  us  to  sing  for 
him.  As  well  as  we  could  command  our  voices,  we  com- 
plied, and  sang  a  part  of  the  hymn,  "How  firm  a  founda- 
tion, ye  saints  of  the  Lord,"  after  which  he  remarked,  "As 
I  said  about  that  chapter,  so  I  say  of  this  hymn,  it  is 
enough;  all  that  is  comforting  in  the  assurance  of  the 
divine  love  and  care  seems  to  be  there ;  nothing  is  omitted." 

Those  who  knew  his  almost  passionate  fondness  for 
music,  and  who  have  listened  to  his  own  voice,  when,  like 
the  pealing  notes  of  an  organ,  it  rose  and  swelled  in  the 
worship  of  God  in  the  great  congregation,  can  best  imagine 
how  affecting  it  was  to  us  when  we  began  to  sing  the 


220  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

hymn,  "How  sweet  the  name  of  Jesus  sounds,"  and  when 
he,  no  longer  able  to  listen  in  silence,  began  to  sing  himself, 
with  a  voice  at  first  tremulous,  uncertain  and  husky,  and 
sometimes  not  even  striking  the  chords  correctly;  but,  as 
we  passed  from  verse  to  verse,  his  spirit  catching  the  in- 
spiration of  the  sentiment,  and  the  noble  elevation  of  feel- 
ing giving  strength  and  volume  to  his  voice,  he  poured  his 
whole  soul  into  the  sound,  as  he  sung  with  us  the  last  two 
lines  of  the  stanza — 

"  Weak  is  the  effort  of  my  heart, 
And  cold  my  warmest  thought, 
But  when  I  see  thee  as  thou  art, 
I'll  praise  thee  as  I  ought." 

Never  can  I  forget  his  manner,  so  rapt,  so  full  of  holy 
triumph,  as  he  joined  with  us  in  the  words — 

"  Till  then  I  would  thy  love  proclaim 
With  every  fleeting  breath ;" 

his  face  beamed  with  a  joy  which  I  thought  no  earthly 
countenance  could  express,  and  his  voice  grew  deeper,  mel- 
lower and  fuller  as  he  said : 

"  And  may  the  music  of  thy  name 
Refresh  my  soul  in  death." 

After  a  brief  pause,  he  said,  "I  know  little  of  music  now, 
but  soon  I  shall  be  listening  to  the  diapason  of  the  uni- 
verse !" 

After  lying  silent  a  while,  with  his  eyes  closed,  he  opened 
them  very  wide,  and  seemed  to  gaze  intensely  on  objects 
around  him,  and  said,  "It  is  dark — dark;  but  never  mind 
that ;  it  is  only  natural  darkness.  I  am  dead,  physically 
dead,  but  spiritually  alive  in  Christ  Jesus — forevermore/' 

He  had  little  more  to  say  after  this.  What  more  was 
there  to  say  ?  He  closed  his  eyes,  and  continued  to  breathe 
more  and  more  softly,  until,  a  little  after  eleven  o'clock,  he 
fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 

That  evening  about  dusk  his  body  was  placed  in  an  am- 
bulance, and  I  brought  it  over  to  Richmond.  It  was  a 
lonely  ride,  through  the  dim  woods,  and  along  the  intricate 
roads  of  Chesterfield  county,  as  I  lay  stretched  on  the  straw 
alongside  the  body  of  my  dead  brother ;  and  I  had  full 
leisure  to   contemplate   the  greatness   of   my   loss.     We 


William  James  Hoge.  221 

reached  Richmond  as  day  was  breaking.  The  funeral  ser- 
vices took  place  from  my  church  at  ten  o'clock  (it  was  not 
possible  to  hold  any  in  Petersburg),  at  which  most  affect- 
ing and  impressive  addresses  were  made  by  Rev.  Drs. 
Moore  and  Leyburn ;  and  he  was  then  buried  in  Holly- 
wood Cemetery,  near  the  grave  of  a  little  boy  of  his  own 
who  sickened  and  died  from  exposure  to  heat  and  fatigue 
consequent  upon  the  long  journey  to  Virginia  (via  Nash- 
ville) from  New  York,  when  he  resigned  his  pastoral 
charge  in  that  city,  in  the  summer  of  1861. 

I  have  felt  a  mournful  pleasure  in  the  preparation  of  this 
sketch ;  one  heightened  by  the  desire  that  its  perusal  may 
be  the  means  of  confirming  the  faith  and  animating  the 
hope  of  some  who  perchance  have  all  their  lives  been  sub- 
ject to  bondage  through  fear  of  death.  The  same  grace 
which  rendered  the  subject  of  this  tribute  triumphant  over 
the  last  enemy,  will  be  sufficient  for  all  who  rely  on  it,  and 
who  live  as  near  to  the  cross  as  he  did. 

Upon  but  one  other  does  this  bereavement  fall  more 
heavily  than  on  myself.  He  was  my  only  brother,  and 
apart  from  natural  affection,  there  was  much  to  cement  our 
attachment  in  similarity  of  tastes,  education  and  calling  in 
life.  The  providence  that  removed  him  is  inscrutably 
mysterious,  but  it  is  none  the  less  wise,  and  holy,  and  kind 
on  that  account ;  and,  as  I  acquiesce  in  it,  unmurmuringly, 
I  do  not  forget  his  own  parting  words  to  me,  "Our  inter- 
course has  been  sweet  on  earth ;  may  it  be  so  forever." 
Very  truly  yours,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

Another  picture  arises  from  memory.  The  solemn  scenes 
in  the  dying  chamber  are  over,  and  the  yet  more  solemn 
stillness  of  death  has  succeeded  to  the  voice  of  praise.  One 
and  another  have  gone  apart  where  grief  or  duty  called  them ; 
but  the  brother,  who  had  in  an  hour  of  danger  once  com- 
mitted his  own  children  to  his  brother's  care,  now  gathers 
the  fatherless  ones  around  him,  and  speaks  to  them  of  the 
father  they  had  lost  and  of  the  heavenly  Father  who  was 
still  with  them.  "One  by  one,"  he  said,  "you  will  give  your- 
selves to  his  service ;  first  Lacy,  then  Addison,  then  Mary, 
then  Peyton,  and  then  little  William."    "And  the  Lord  .  .  . 


222  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

did  let  none  of  his  words  fall  to  the  ground,"  though  the  last 
was  first,  winning  the  crown  without  the  conflict. 

With  a  few  extracts  from  Dr.  Moore's  sketch,  and  a  noble 
letter  from  the  late  Dr.  Henry  C.  Alexander,  we  close  this 
chapter : 

His  character  was  so  simple,  transparent  and  child-like 
that  it  requires  no  skill  for  its  analysis,  and  his  usefulness 
was  so  directly  connected  with  that  character,  as  it  was 
unfolded  by  nature  and  grace,  that  the  one  is  completely 
explained  by  the  other. 

He  was  blessed  with  fine  physical  endowments.  His 
bright  face,  with  its  sparkling  eyes  and  blooming  cheek, 
gave  token  of  a  system  that  had  never  felt  the  depressing 
influence  of  chronic  disease,  whilst  his  well-knit  and  stal- 
wart frame  seemed  capable  of  any  amount  of  labor.  This 
gave  him  a  ceaseless  flow  of  animal  spirits,  that  seemed 
ever  gushing  up,  like  a  fountain,  in  the  exuberance  of  its 
enjoyment  of  everything  fair  and  beautiful  in  nature,  so 
that  he  had  an  exquisite  relish  of  life  that  was  contagious, 
and  gave  special  charm  to  his  society.  His  voice  was  one 
of  unusual  compass  and  power,  and  few  who  ever  heard  its 
deep,  organ-like  notes  in  singing,  or  its  clarion  ring  when 
excited  in  speaking,  can  soon  forget  its  rich  and  musical 
inflections.  These  physical  advantages  contributed  largely 
to  his  success  as  a  preacher. 

His  mind  was  characterized  rather  by  symmetry  of  de- 
velopment than  the  predominance  of  any  single  power. 
The  logical  and  imaginative  faculties  were  so  evenly  bal- 
anced, that  had  either  been  in  deficiency,  he  would  have 
been  noted  for  the  possession  of  the  other.  A  ripe,  schol- 
arly culture  gave  the  chastening  finish  to  both.  He  had  a 
rich  vein  of  playful  wit,  unmingled  with  the  bitterness  of 
sarcasm,  which,  especially  in  private,  was  ever  throwing 
around  every  topic  it  touched  the  bright  sparkle  of  its 
fancies,  lighting  it  up  with  its  brilliant  coruscations,  but 
leaving  no  sting  or  blister  behind.  These  mental  endow- 
ments gave  a  peculiar  charm  to  his  private  intercourse,  as 
well  as  his  public  services. 

But  the  main  elements  of  his  success  lay  in  his  emotional 
nature.  He  had  naturally  a  large,  manly  heart,  full  of 
genial  and  generous  emotions,  that  lifted  him  above  all 


William  James  Hoge.  223 

littleness  or  jealousy  of  feeling,  and  made  him  love  rather 
to  "raise  mortals  to  the  skies"  than  to  "pull  angels  down." 
His  range  of  sympathy  was  a  very  broad  one,  enabling  him 
to  rejoice  with  the  joyful,  and  mourn  with  the  sorrowful, 
to  mingle  his  feelings  with  the  ripe  and  often  saddened 
musings  of  hoary  age,  and  enter  into  the  gushing  gladness 
of  childhood,  as  if  himself  a  little  child.  This  quick  sym- 
pathy with  youth  gave  him  a  rare  power  to  attract  the  affec- 
tions of  the  young  and  lead  them  to  the  great  Shepherd. 

To  these  natural  gifts  was  added  a  large  measure  of  the 
grace  of  God.  He  had  what  we  may  almost  call  a  personal 
love  for  Jesus,  that  made  Christ  the  great  theme  of  his 
preaching,  and  largely  of  his  conversation,  and  a  love  of 
souls  that  never  seemed  to  weary  of  efforts  to  save  them ; 
a  faith  that  seemed  never  to  have  been  crippled  by  dark 
wrestlings  with  unbelief,  and  which  seemed  to  feed  upon 
the  living  word,  not  only  in  the  critical  study  of  it,  but  in 
the  joyous  use  of  it,  so  that  his  mind,  heart  and  very  vocab- 
ulary became  saturated  with  its  spirit  and  language;  and 
a  hope  that  shone  like  a  morning  star,  growing  brighter 
and  brighter,  until  it  faded,  not  into  the  darkness  of  the 
grave,  but  rather  into  the  brightness  of  that  day  that  has 
neither  sunset  nor  cloud  for  evermore, 

Charlotte  C.  H.,  August  i,  1864. 
Rev.  Moses  D.  Hoge,  D.  D., 

My  Dear  Sir  :  If  I  have  delayed  this  expression  of  my 
mournful  feelings,  it  is  not  (I  am  sure  you  know  already) 
from  any  lack  of  sympathy  with  you  in  the  great  affliction 
God  has  sent  upon  you.  When  my  attention  was  first 
called  to  the  announcement  of  your  dear  brother's  funeral, 
in  one  of  fhe  daily  papers,  I  was  overwhelmed  with  amaze- 
ment ;  I  might  almost  say,  horror.  I  felt  as  if  some  large 
and  beaming  luminary  had  been  suddenly  extinguished 
in  mid-heaven.  It  was  as  if  my  paragon  of  health  and 
strength  and  bloom  and  gentleness  and  cordial,  hopeful, 
cheerful  piety,  had  been  struck  out  of  existence.  It  had 
never  once  occurred  to  me  to  connect  the  idea  of  death 
with  the  idea  of  him.  He  was  to  me  the  visible  embodi- 
ment of  immortal  youth.  He  was  in  these,  as  well  as  many 
other  respects,  my  "bright  particular  star."  He  was  one 
of  those  rare  and  glorious  spirits  whose  mission  it  seems 


224  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

to  be  to  link  into  a  more  intimate  relationship  the  earth 
and  heaven.  To  this  feeling  there  immediately  succeeded 
one  of  overwhelming  tenderness  and  poignant  personal 
sorrow.  Had  I  lost  a  near  kinsman,  my  suffering  could 
not  well  have  been  more  acute  or  distressing. 

I  can  find  no  words  that  interpret  my  emotions  so  fitly  as 
those  of  David's  lament  over  Jonathan  and  Tennyson's 
sweet  outburst  over  young  Hallam.  I  sometimes  wonder 
whether  everybody  felt  in  this  way  towards  him.  At  first 
all  was  astonishment  mixed  with  tender  grief. 

"The  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places." 

"Ye  mountains  of  Gilboa,  let  there  be  no  dew,  neither  let 
there  be  rain  upon  you,  nor  fields  of  offering." 

"Ye  da:ughters  of  Israel  weep  for  him  who  clothed  you 
in  scarlet  and  other  delights,  who  put  ornaments  of  gold 
upon  your  apparel." 

"I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  .  .  .  very  pleas- 
ant hast  thou  been  unto  me." 

"How  are  the  mighty  fallen  and  the  weapons  of  war 
perished !" 

Then  came  a  more  quiet  feeling ;  but  one  which  will  be 
permanent — 

"  I  leave  thy  praises  unexpressed 
In  verse  that  brings  myself  relief, 
And  by  the  measure  of  my  grief 
I  leave  thy  greatness  to  be  guessed; 

"  What  practice,  howsoe'er  expert, 
In  fitting  aptest  words  to  things, 
Or  voice,  the  richest  toned  that  sings, 
Hath  power  to  give  thee. as  thou  wert? 

"  I  care  not  in  these  fading  days 

To  raise  a  cry  that  lasts  not  long, 
And  round  thee  with  the  breeze  of  song 
To  stir  a  little  dust  of  praise. 

"  Thy  leaf  has  perished  in  the  green. 

And,  while  we  breathe  beneath  the  sun. 
The  world  which  credits  what  is  done 
Is  cold  to  all  that  might  have  been. 

"  So  here  shall  silence  guard  thy  fame. 
But  somewhere,  out  of  human  view, 
Whate'er  thy  hands  are  set  to  do 
Is  wrought  with  tumult  of  acclaim." 


William  James  Hoge.  225 

I  have  read,  with  a  sort  of  pensive  dehght,  Dr.  Moore's 
graceful  sketch  and  your  own  touching  account  of  the 
death.  And  what  a  death  it  was!  How  it  crowns  and 
finishes  the  hfe!  Do  the  records  of  Christian  biography 
present  us  with  more  beautiful  or  affecting  dying  exercises  ? 
I  think  not.  We  might  apply  to  him  the  words  of  Simeon, 
"Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,"  for 
his  "eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation." 

The  first  time  I  ever  saw  your  brother  was  at  my  father's 
house  in  New  York.  He  was  then,  as  at  the  time  of  his  de- 
cease, in  the  exuberant  prime  of  early  manhood.  His  pres- 
ence shed  a  tinge  of  joy  over  the  whole  family.  The  apart- 
ment seemed  full  of  light  and  music  while  he  was  in  it. 
My  dear  impressible  father  seemed  to  be  drunk  with  pleas- 
ure all  the  time  he  was  under  his  roof.  So  was  "Sparkle," 
the  canary,  in  his  cage  on  the  wall.  When  he  grasped  me 
by  the  hand,  I  felt  new  blood  and  new  emotions  tingling 
from  the  heart  to  the  extremities.  When  he  held  me  fast 
and  looked  me  kindly  in  the  face,  his  eyes  seemed  to  me  to 
resemble  the  blue  sky — the  pure,  sweet,  infinite  azure  of 
the  firmament ;  and  his  voice,  in  its  deep  melody  and  ex- 
quisite modulations,  the  bold,  but  harmless  rush  of  a 
southern  wind  in  June.  This  may  seem  extravagant, 
but  such  were  my  feelings  of  growing  love  and  admiration. 
To  look  upon  this  sweet  and  noble  gentleman,  was  (I  be- 
lieve) to  be  smitten  with  his  attractions. 

On  arriving  at  Princeton,  I  found  the  town  all  agog 
about  him.  He  had  delivered  two  sermons  with  great 
effect,  one  at  the  Seminary  chapel  and  one  at  the  church. 
His  subjects  were  the  "Stoning  of  Stephen"  and  the  "Cities 
of  Refuge."  Uncle  Addison,  especially,  was  in  raptures.  I 
have  seldom  heard  him  speak  in  equal  terms  of  enthusiasm 
of  anybody.  He  was  particularly  struck  with  the  union  of 
exegetical  argument  (as  where  he  proves  the  Deity  of 
Christ  from  Stephen's  act  of  worship)  with  the  emotional 
and  imaginative  powers,  and  indeed,  if  we  take  into  view 
the  charms  of  his  delivery  and  the  rare  and  visible  impress 
of  personal  holiness,  just  here  it  seems  to  me  lay  your 
brother's  forte. 

I  next  met  him  at  his  own  house  in  Prince  Edward, 
where  I  was  most  hospitably  entertained,  and  in  every  way 
furthered  in  my  plans.    Haec  olim  meminisse  juvabit. 


226  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

After  listening  to  Dr.  Smith  in  the  morning  (this  was 
Sunday),  we  rode  together  to  Farmville,  where  your 
brother  was  then  preaching,  and  where  he  made  me  assist 
him.  He  spoke  at  night,  and  I  in  the  afternoon.  He  intro- 
duced me  with  a  kind  allusion  to  my  parentage,  and  to  the 
intercourse  that  had  subsisted  between  Dr.  Hoge  and  Dr. 
Alexander.  I  was  totally  overcome  with  his  gentleness, 
frankness  and  cordiality.  All  the  way  from  College  Hill 
he  was  pouring  out  his  thoughts  and  feelings — his  fancies 
and  affections,  with  the  joy  of  a  lark  or  a  nightingale. 

Sometimes  his  mellow  laugh  would  shake  the  dim  woods. 
Sometimes  his  eyes  would  fill  with  tears.  His  sermon  was 
a  noble  one,  but  his  conversation  (on  such  subjects  as 
night,  death,  the  temptation,  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  Fair- 
bairn's  Typology)  impressed  me  even  more  than  the  dis- 
course. When  we  reached  his  stables  at  the  Seminary,  I 
requested  him  to  exert  his  lungs  to  the  utmost  in  calling 
the  servant.  He  laughingly  complied,  and  gave  a  shout 
that  would  have  waked  the  caves  of  Neptune.  He  seemed 
to  me  at  this  time  to  exult  in  his  youth  and  temperament 
and  constitution.  I  noticed,  too,  that  in  the  mad  frolic  of 
his  animal  spirits,  he  turned  everything  into  fun,  or  else 
into  religion. 

Our  next  meeting  was  once  more  in  New  York.  I  per- 
haps do  not  give  the  events  in  their  order,  but  that  is  im- 
material. He  was  to  preach  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  and 
took  tea  that  night  at  Uncle  Henry's.  We  accompanied 
him  to  the  door.  The  magnificent  audience-room  was  soon 
packed  from  floor  to  ceiling — five  thousand  persons,  in- 
cluding those  standing  in  the  aisles.  Your  brother  excelled 
himself,  save  in  one  particular — his  voice  was  somewhat 
impaired  by  a  cold.  His  manner  was  superb,  and  the  de- 
livery of  the  closing  sentences  faultless.  I  have  known  few, 
if  any,  discourses  to  make  such  a  sensation.  The  town 
literally  ran  after  him.  He  had  already  been  approached 
by  the  Collegiate  Church.  I  took  his  arm  in  the  vestibule, 
and  walked  with  him  to  Twenty-seventh  street.  It  was  a 
fine  night,  and  he  descanted  as  usual  upon  the  heavens  and 
the  divine  glory.  He  also  spoke  with  frankness  of  the  in- 
terest his  preaching  had  excited,  and  expressed  his  sense 
of  his  unutterable  nothingness  in  the  sight  of  God. 

I  cannot  dwell  upon  the  altogether  pleasing  and  profit- 


William  James  Hoge.  227 

able  intercourse  it  was  my  privilege  to  enjoy  with  your 
brother,  during  his  connection  with  the  Brick  Church.  We 
spent  a  large  part  of  one  summer  together  at  Long  Branch, 
sojourning  in  adjoining  cottages,  my  uncle's  and  Miss 
Macready's.  We  used  to  walk  together  on  the  seashore  in 
the  windy  afternoons,  or  sit  in  the  breezy  arbors,  or  throw 
ourselves  at  length  upon  the  firm  sand.  On  these  occasions 
all  the  boy  seemed  to  revive  in  him,  though  he  never  ceased 
to  pour  out  words  which  bore  the  impress  of  his  maturer 
genius. 

"  And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt," 
Found  "tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything." 

The  synod  in  Charlottesville  is  fresh  in  your  recollection. 
This  must  have  been  still  earlier.  Never  shall  I  forget  his 
two  sermons  on  the  texts,  "The  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  in- 
firmities," etc.,  and  "I  am  the  way."  The  latter,  delivered 
as  it  was  under  the  most  inspiring  circumstances,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  regard  as  possibly  the  greatest  effort  of  his  life. 
I  think  you  were  present.  The  house  was  crowded  with  the 
elite  of  Virginia.  The  hall,  with  its  pictured  reminiscences, 
was  worthy  of  such  a  presence.  Your  dear  and  honored 
brother  seemed  to  be  aware  that  much  was  expected  of 
him,  and  I  suppose  equalled  the  largest  anticipations.  His 
description  of  Arnold  Winkleried,  and  of  the  two  bridges 
to  heaven,  surpassed  anything  of  the  sort  I  ever  listened 
to.  My  uncle,  Dr.  Cabell,  compared  it  to  a  tragedy  of 
Euripides.  Professor  Bledsoe  dashed  out  of  the  house 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  muttering,  "That  is  the  way  I  like  to 
hear  a  man  preach.  It  is  the  simple  gospel."  The  sermon 
was  thoroughly  Augustinian,  and  yet  could  give  no  offence 
even  to  a  semi-Pelagian. 

It  would  be  hard  to  convey  to  another  the  cordiality  with 
which  Mr.  Hoge  bade  me  God  speed  when  I  came  to  settle 
in  Virginia,  or  the  joy  with  which  he  seemed  to  meet  me  on 
his  return  to  the  South.  I  mention  this,  not  as  meaning  to 
intimate  that  he  held  me  in  higher  regard  than  he  did  hun- 
dreds of  others,  but  as  an  illustration  of  his  kindness  of 
heart,  and  the  pleasure  with  which  he  always  reverted  to 
old  associations.  He  invited  me  to  spend  the  night  with 
him  at  General  Baldwin's  during  the  meeting  of  synod  at 


228  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Staunton,  and,  as  we  both  sat  out  in  the  moonlight,  under 
the  trelHs  work  (the  family  having  retired)  he  filled  that 
little  paradise  with  the  music  of  his  mournful,  yet  joyous 
retrospections.  The  theme  (I  hardly  need  tell  you)  was 
poor  Dabney  Harrison,  and  the  extraordinary  complication 
of  private  sorrows  that  succeeded  his  death.  I  never  heard 
him  talk  to  greater  advantage.  I  was  inspired  with  new 
admiration,  as  well  as  by  everything  he  said  and  did  as 
Moderator  of  the  synod. 

Last  fall,  just  before  my  return  from  a  trip  to  the  moun- 
tains, I  went  down  to  preach  to  the  Eighteenth  Regiment, 
then  camped  near  Petersburg.  I  arrived  there  on  Saturday, 
and  put  up  with  my  friend,  Mrs.  Dunlop.  Sunday  morning, 
I  listened  to  your  brother.  It  was  the  first  part  of  a  dis- 
course which  he  finished  at  night.  The  house  was  thor- 
oughly filled.  They  rose  to  a  man  in  singing  the  last  hymn, 
and  the  pastor  led  them  himself  with  his  magnificent  bass. 
He  also  baptized  a  child.  I  sat  in  his  pew,  and  partook  of 
his  dinner  and  his  hearty  welcome.  I  was  sick,  and  he 
ministered  to  my  wants  as  an  invalid.  He  took  me  with 
him  into  his  gardens,  and  opened  his  mind  to  me  about  the 
improvements  he  purposed,  etc.,  etc.  He  seemed  to  be  in 
high  spirits,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  every  comfort.  A 
young  lady,  whom  he  seemed  to  prize,  had  just  sent  him  a 
bunch  of  flowers  or  a  basket  of  fruit.  The  sun  poured 
torrents  of  light  upon  his  clear,  creamy  walls.  Everything 
was  as  neat  and  snug  as  a  bandbox.  Surely,  I  thought  here 
is  happiness  on  earth.  Alas !  this  was  the  last  I  ever  saw 
of  one  of  the  noblest  and  gentlest  beings  that  ever  bright- 
ened for  me  the  path  to  heaven ;  but,  by  the  grace  of  that 
Saviour  in  whom  he  trusted,  we  shall  meet  him  yonder, 
where  all  that  is  now  dark  shall  be  explained.  And  if  it 
ravished  the  mind  of  Cicero  to  dream  of  seeing  Cato  in 
Elysium,  ought  it  not  to  fill  our  minds  with  emulation  to  be 
assured  of  a  reunion  with  the  blessed  and  the  departed. 
I  can  never  read  the  passage  in  the  De  Senectute  without 
tears,  and  without  feeling  myself  elevated  above  the  earth, 
and  its  corruptible  vanities. 

I  wish  you  to  forgive  this  long  epistle  on  the  score  of  the 
affection  I  bore  your  dear  translated  brother.  As  I  am  not 
in  possession  of  her  address,  would  you  do  me  the  favor  to 
forward  this,  after  you  have  read  it,  to  "Cousin  Virginia." 


William  James  Hoge.  229 

If  I  have  not  alluded  to  her  more  pointedly  before,  it  was 
not  because  I  did  not  cherish  a  most  grateful  sense  of  her 
kindness,  and  a  delightful  recollection  of  the  hours  passed 
in  her  society  and  the  society  of  him  who  has  been  taken 
from  her.  May  God,  in  the  unsearchable  riches  of  his 
compassion,  goodness  and  love,  apply  to  her  that  consola- 
tion of  which  she  stands  in  need !  May  he,  who  has  been 
with  her  in  six  troubles,  not  forsake  her  in  the  seventh. 
And  may  the  promise  be  verified  to  her  and  to  her  children 
after  her,  "I  will  never  leave  thee."  With  warmest  senti- 
ments of  regard,  I  am. 

Yours  very  sincerely,  H.  C.  Alexander. 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Valley  of  the  Shadow. 

1864  — 1870. 

"He  was  not  all  unhappy.     His  resolve 
Upbore  him,  and  firm  faith  ;  and  evermore 
Prayer  from  a  living  source  within  the  will, 
And  beating  up  thro'  all  the  bitter  world. 
Like  fountains  of  sweet  water  in  the  sea. 
Kept  him  a  living  soul."  — Tennyson. 

SLOWLY  and  surely  the  forces  of  destruction  were 
closing  in  upon  the  Confederacy  and  its  devoted  cap- 
ital. Less  slowly,  but  more  surely,  the  resources  of  the 
Confederacy  were  approaching  the  vanishing  point.  In 
these  conditions.  Dr.  Hoge  prepared  a  resolution  for  the 
action  of  Congress,  appointing  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.^ 

^  The  text  of  the  resolution  in  Dr.  Hoge's  manuscript  is  as  follovv^s : 
"The  Congress  of  these  Confederate  States,  reverently  recognizing 
the  providence  of  God  in  the  affairs  of  men,  and  gratefully  remembering 
the  guidance,  support  and  deliverance  granted  to  our  patriot  fathers  in 
the  memorable  war  which  resulted  in  the  independence  of  the  colonies  in 
the  days  of  the  first  revolution;  and  now,  reposing  in  Him  their  supreme 
confidence  and  hope  in  the  present  struggle  for  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom and  for  the  right  to  live  under  a  government  of  our  own  choice 
and  rulers  of  our  own  selection ;  and  deeply  impressed  with  the  con- 
viction that  without  Him  nothing  is  strong,  nothing  wise  and  nothing  en- 
during; in  order  that  the  people  of  this  Confederacy  may  have  the 
opportunity  at  the  same  time  of  voluntarily  offering  their  adorations  to 
the  great  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  of  penitently  confessing  their  sins, 
and  strengthening  their  vows  and  purposes  of  amendment,  m  humble 
reliance  on  the  merits  and  intercession  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  aid  of  the 
divine  Spirit;    do  resolve, 

"That  the  day  of  be  set  apart  and  observed  as  a  day  of 

solemn  humiliation,  fasting  and  prayer,  that  Almighty  God  would  so 
preside  over  our  public  councils  and  constituted  authorities ;  that  he 
would  so  inspire  our  armies,  and  those  who  have  command  of  them, 
with  wisdom,  courage  and  perseverance ;  and  so  manifest  Himself  in 
the  greatness  of  His  goodness  and  the  majesty  of  His  power,  that  we  may 
be  safely  and  successfully  led  through  the  trials  of  this  just  and  necessary 
war,  to  the  attainment  of  an  honorable  peace;  that,  while  we  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  a  free  and  happy  government,  we  may  ascribe  to  Him  the 
honor  and  the  glory  of  our  independence  and  prosperity." 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  231 

The  day  fixed  upon  was  Friday,  March  10,  1865,  and  all  over 
the  Southern  land  pastors  and  people  met  in  churches  and  in 
camps  and  cried  unto  God  for  deliverance. 

It  may  seem  strange,  as  we  look  back,  that  men  of  intelli- 
gence and  discernment  had  not,  by  this  time,  seen  the  hand- 
writing on  the  wall,  and  should  even  yet  have  clung  to  the 
hope  of  Southern  independence ;  but  the  result  by  no  means 
seemed  so  inevitable  then  as  now. 

A  gentleman  of  high  character  and  standing  in  New  York 
wrote  to  Dr.  Hoge  in  the  spring  of  1863  : 

Politically  there  is  a  great  reaction  now  going  on  in  the 
North.  The  people  are  tired  of  the  war.  Innumerable 
households  are  clad  in  mourning.  Their  dead  are  fatten- 
ing the  soil  of  the  South.  Taxes  increase.  Debt  looms  up 
gloomily.  Business  is  prostrated.  There  is  no  gold  or  sil- 
ver ;  nothing  but  paper  trash.  And  hence  the  revolt  from 
Republicanism. 

Grant's  movement  upon  Richmond,  until  he  crossed  to  the 
south  bank  of  the  James,  seemed  but  a  repetition  of  an  old 
story,  checked  as  he  was  at  every  point  by  Lee's  unbroken 
line.  Even  after  Grant's  change  of  base,  even  during  the 
siege  of  Petersburg,  gold — that  subtle  gauge  of  public  opin- 
ion— reached  two  hundred  and  ninety  in  New  York,  the 
highest  point  during  the  war ;  and  in  the  presidential  election 
of  1864,  though  McClellan  was  overwhelmingly  beaten  in  the 
Electoral  College,  in  the  popular  vote  nine  out  of  every 
twenty  voters  registered  their  opposition  to  the  war,  so  that 
a  change  of  one  vote  in  ten  would  have  reversed  the 
figures. 

But  it  was  not  written  that  the  Confederacy  should  suc- 
ceed ;  and  when  Lee's  lines  were  broken  at  Petersburg,  and 
he  had  to  withdraw  the  covering  protection  of  his  army 
from  Richmond,  its  evacuation  and  the  fall  of  the  Confed- 
eracy were  inevitable. 

Of  that  night  of  terror  and  of  dread,  when  Richmond  was 
evacuated,  let  us  not  speak. 


232  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

The  authors  of  the  monumental  biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
treat  it  as  the  pricking  of  Richmond's  "little  bubble  of  pride 
at  being  the  Confederate  Capital."  Perhaps  there  was  some- 
thing of  that,  but  the  final  history  will  not  be  written  in  that 
spirit.  No  one  can  really  understand  the  spirit  that  animated 
the  best  people  of  the  South,  and  speak  of  them  in  that  tone 
of  thinly-veiled  contempt  that  characterizes  the  whole  of 
that  history.  Dr.  Hoge  was  one  of  those  people,  and  no  one 
in  Richmond  felt  its  downfall  more  keenly  than  he.  It  is 
significant  that  he  was  held  in  highest  honor  by  a  man  who 
has  filled,  with  distinguished  ability,  both  of  the  exalted 
stations  to  which  one  of  those  authors  has  attained.  Better 
knowledge  will  bring  fairer  judgment.  History  must 
reckon  with  such  men  before  it  understands  the  Confederate 
struggle. 

On  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Davis  and  his  Cabinet  from 
Richmond,  Dr.  Hoge  accompanied  them,  by  the  advice  of 
friends,  as  he  was  not  willing  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  United  States  so  long  as  the  Confederate  government 
existed.  In  Danville  he  shared  his  room  with  Mr.  Benjamin, 
whom  he  found  walking  the  streets  without  a  home.  He 
afterwards  contributed  to  Mr.  Lawley — whom  he  had  known 
well  in  Richmond  as  the  war  correspondent  of  the  London 
Times — some  interesting  facts  with  regard  to  that  epoch  for 
his  biography  of  Mr.  Benjamin.  He  remained  a  while  in 
Milton,  N.  C. ;  and,  as  soon  as  it  was  possible,  he  returned 
to  Richmond  to  take  up  the  burden  of  life,  with  a  sad  heart, 
but  an  unconquered  will. 

The  conditions  were  enough  to  paralyze  the  stoutest  heart. 
Of  course,  every  business  interest  was  prostrate.  The  wealth 
that  was  held  in  the  labor  of  the  slaves  was  gone  at  a  stroke ; 
without  the  slave-labor,  plantations  were  at  first  valueless; 
planters  who  had  lived  freely  themselves  and  thought  no- 
thing of  an  outstanding  debt  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  or  of 
"endorsing"  to  that  amount  for  a  friend,  found  themselves 
bankrupt;    the  merchants  and  banks  who  held  their  paper 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  233 

were  often  forced  into  bankruptcy;  the  millions  held  in 
Confederate  bonds  and  Confederate  money  had  vanished 
into  air — or  rather  into  the  smoke  of  battle;  State  bonds  be- 
came, for  a  time,  almost  as  worthless ;  the  railroads  had  been 
the  plaything  of  contending  armies,  and  found  themselves  at 
the  close  of  the  struggle  with  road-bed  and  rolling  stock 
worn  out  and  in  ruins,  while  their  earnings  were  depressed 
by  the  depression  of  all  things  else.  Thus  every  form  of 
wealth  was  blighted  or  blasted. 

In  this  material  demoralization,  it  was  not  only  individuals 
that  suffered.  The  educational  institutions  of  the  South, 
whose  investments  were  in  bonds  and  stocks  and  other  paper 
representatives  of  value,  were  without  means  of  support,  and 
would  have  been  compelled  to  suspend  but  for  the  extra- 
ordinary sacrifices  of  their  professors  and  the  extraordinary 
exertions  of  their  friends.  And  amid  the  general  poverty, 
the  support  of  all  charitable  enterprises  and  of  religion  itself 
became  exceedingly  difficult,  and  would  have  been  impossible 
had  not  the  hearts  of  the  people  been  more  than  usually  lifted 
to  God,  and  their  sacrifices  for  his  cause  proportionally 
greater. 

But  to  thinking  men,  these  material  troubles  were  the 
least  of  their  calamities.  The  social  system  of  the  South, 
with  its  admitted  drawbacks,  had  developed  a  noble  type  of 
men  and  women.  It  is  true,  it  was  an  aristocracy.  The 
"poor  whites"  of  the  South  had  not  developed  equally  with 
the  corresponding  class  in  other  parts  of  the  country;  but 
this  aristocracy  contained  much  of  what  was  best  in  all  the 
land.  From  colonial  times  it  had  furnished  the  leading 
generals  and  statesmen  to  the  whole  country.  Virginia  was 
recognized  as  the  "mother  of  States  and  of  statesmen." 
What  would  be  the  outcome  of  the  destruction  of  this  aris- 
tocracy, who  could  tell ! 

But  more  than  all  this,  they  had  lost  their  independence; 
their  statehood.  They  were  governed  as  a  conquered  pro- 
vince ;  the  constitution  that  their  fathers  had  helped  to  frame 


234  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

was  displaced  by  military  authority  and  martial  law.     They 
were  men  without  a  country. 

But  over  all  came  a  darker  shadow  yet:  in  the  enfran- 
chisement— suddenly  and  without  preparation — of  the  re- 
cently emancipated  slaves.  So  far  as  this  was  done  sincerely 
for  the  help  and  protection  of  the  negroes,  it  was  a  blunder ; 
so  far  as  it  was  done  for  partisan  advantage,  it  was  a  crime. 
The  one  hope  for  the  South  was  that  the  good  will  existing 
between  master  and  slave  would  lead  to  a  friendly  working 
out  of  the  problem  of  free  labor.  This  measure  threw  them 
at  once  into  opposite  political  camps ;  subjected  the  colored, 
race  to  the  leadership  of  unprincipled  adventurers,  and  irri- 
tated the  baser  whites  into  a  thousand  acts  of  lawlessness. 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  lived — Southern  people  have  more  and 
more  recognized — these  things  would  probably  not  have- 
been.  With  his  views  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  he- 
had  felt  it  his  sworn  duty  to  wage  war  upon  them.  He  had 
waged  it  relentlessly,  as  war  must  be  waged  if  waged  at  all ; 
but  he  had  shown  a  scrupulous  regard  for  the  Constitution,, 
as  he  understood  it;  a  calm  confidence  in  doing  his  duty  in 
the  face  of  popular  clamor;  a  greatness  of  soul  that  rose- 
above  mere  partisan  advantage,  and  a  kindness  of  heart  in- 
capable of  ungenerous  treatment  to  a  fallen  foe.  It  was  the- 
tragic  mistake  of  the  early  secessionists  to  misconceive  the 
character  of  this  man.  It  was  the  tragic  misfortune  of  the 
whole  South  that  he  was  struck  down  just  wdien  he  was 
needed  to  give  moderation  to  the  counsels  of  their  conquer- 
ors.   But  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not,  and  these  things  were. 

The  sorrow  and  resolve  of  this  time  are  reflected  in  a  few 
of  Dr.  Hoge's  letters  to  his  ever-faithful  friend.  The  first 
w^as  sent  by  the  hand  of  his  true  friend,  Mr.  Staff  Little,  of 
New  Jersey,  at  a  time  when  one  could  not  write  as  one 
pleased  through  the  mails,  and  when  even  his  visitors  were 
under  surveillance.  His  daughter,  who  was  in  poor  health,, 
had  already  been  sent  to  "Aunt  Mary's"  care. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  235 

Richmond,  May  15,  1865. 
My  Dear  Sister  : 

"  With  every  morning  light, 
My  sorrow  new  begins." 

I  forget  my  humiliation  for  a  while  in  sleep,  but  the 
memory  of  every  bereavement  comes  back  heavily,  like  a 
sullen  sea  surge,  on  awaking,  flooding  and  submerging  my 
soul  with  anguish.  The  idolized  expectation  of  a  separate 
nationality,  of  a  social  life  and  literature  and  civilization  of 
our  own,  together  with  a  gospel  guarded  against  the  con- 
tamination of  New  England  infidelity,  all  this  has  perished, 
and  I  feel  like  a  shipwrecked  mariner  thrown  up  like  a  sea- 
weed on  a  desert  shore. 

I  hope  my  grief  is  manly.  I  have  no  disposition  to  in- 
dulge in  querulous  complaints.  God's  dark  providence 
enwraps  me  like  a  pall ;  I  cannot  comprehend,  but  I  will 
not  charge  him  foolishly ;  I  cannot  explain,  but  I  will  not 
murmur. 

To  me  it  seems  that  our  overthrow  is  the  worst  thing 
that  could  have  happened  for  the  South — the  worst  thing 
that  could  have  happened  for  the  North,  and  for  the  cause 
of  constitutional  freedom  and  of  religion  on  this  continent. 
But  the  Lord  hath  prepared  his  throne  in  the  heavens  and 
his  kingdom  ruleth  over  all.  I  await  the  development  of 
his  providence,  and  I  am  thankful  that  I  can  implicitly  be- 
lieve that  the  end  will  show  that  all  has  been  ordered  in 
wisdom  and  love.  Thougii  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust 
him. 

Mr.  Little  will  tell  you  more  than  I  can  write.  He  will 
explain  why  I  have  seen  so  much  less  of  him  than  I  could 
have  wished. 

Bessie's  letter  tells  me  how  considerate,  tender,  and  lov- 
ing you  have  been  to  her.  I  have  long  called  you  sister; 
you  continue  to  give  me  reason  for  the  sweet  appellation. 

I  am  trying  to  reconcile  her  to  probable  disappointment 
as  to  going  abroad.  My  stocks,  bonds,  etc.,  are  now  worth- 
less, and  I  have  no  means  of  sending  her  to  England,  and 

even  if  she  went  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  C ,  I 

doubt  whether  she  would  enjoy  her  visit  to  the  Old  World, 
where  a  Confederate  will  be  regarded  very  much  in  the 
light  of  a  Hungarian  or  Pole;  the  object  of  pity  dashed 
with  contempt,  and  not  even  of  sympathy.     A  successful 


236  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

revolt  is  crowned  witli  glory ;   an  insurrectionary  failure  is 
branded  by  the  world  with  infamy. 

I  am  writing  very  late  at  night  after  a  weary  day,  and  I 
must  still  send  a  few  lines  to  Bess  by  Mr.  Little,  with  whom 
I  have  had  a  long  and  satisfactory  conversation. 

Ever  truly  yours,  M.  D.  H. 

Again  he  writes  in  August : 

I  returned  last  night  from  Petersburg,  whither  I  went 
to  see  a  bereaved  family  that  had  claims  on  my  attention. 
It  was  a  very  mournful  visit ;  the  very  memories  of  the 
past,  some  of  them  absolutely  delightful  in  themselves, 
only  saddened  me  because  of  the  vivid  contrast  they  forced 
on  my  mind  with  the  things  of  the  present.  In  passing  the 
door  of  the  pretty  parsonage,  I  could  almost  see  Brother 
William  emerging,  with  his  beaming  face  and  almost  bois- 
terous welcome,  when  "Brother  Moses" made  a  week  event- 
ful, in  his  regard  at  least,  by  a  visit.  Then  there  was  the 
shell-shattered  church.  Then  there  was  Mcllwaine's  house, 
the  very  home  of  hospitality  and  Irish  heartiness,  the  pro- 
prietor, old,  feeble,  and  in  Europe.  Then  there  was  Steven- 
son's, where  everything  that  is  good  in  a  cross  between  a 
Scot  and  a  Virginian  was  to  be  found ;  but  he,  poor  fellow, 
dying  of  consumption  at  some  summer  resort  in  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  and  there  was  old  Mrs.  Lynch's  comfortable  man- 
sion, recalling  not  only  our  visit  there  in  company,  but 
earlier  ones  of  mine  with  Parsons ;  bringing  back  the  recol- 
lection of  such  dinners  and  suppers  as  only  those  who  have 
been  college  boys  can  recall ;  together  with  visions  of 
blazing  coal  fires,  and  luxurious  chambers,  and  pretty  ser- 
vant maids,  and  lunches  and  cigars  between  times.  But 
now  every  whit  of  this  has  vanished — the  old  lady,  and 
Phil.,  and  the  nut-brown  Fanny,  and  the  high-swung  car- 
riage and  the  fat  horses,  and  the  hot  and  honeyed  and  but- 
tered buckwheats ;  and  only  you  and  I  left  to  sigh  over  it 
all.  But  sorry  as  I  am  to  end  my  letter  with  a  sigh,  this  is 
the  way  nearly  everything  in  life  ends,  and  this  must  be  the 
finis  of  your  affectionate  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

Once  more  in  September : 

I  have  not  been  very  well  since  the  surrender. 

Other  seas  will  give  up  their  dead,  but  my  hopes  went 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  237 

down  into  one  from  which  there  is  no  resurrection.  These 
inscrutable  providences  are  Hke  the  half  lines  written  in  the 
palaces  of  the  Caesars — what  is  to  come  after  will  explain 
and  complete  their  meaning. 

When  you  get  back  home,  I  want  you  to  lay  me  under  an 
additional  obligation.  Since  my  return  from  England,  I 
have  seen  scarcely  any  new  books,  and  I  want  something 
fresh  and  smart ;  something  that  will  sometimes  transport 
me  to  an  ideal  land.  I  have  no  objection  to  your  enlivening 
the  package  with  any  good  divinity  or  recently  invented 
history.  All  I  want  is  something  late  and  readable,  whether 
song  or  sermon. 

Dr.  Hoge  had  many  friends  at  the  North  before  the  war. 
Some  of  them  were  of  strong  Southern  sympathies.  As  they 
had  opportunity  they  had  cheered  him  during  the  struggle 
itself,  and  at  its  close  they  were  prompt  in  their  greetings 
and  in  offers  of  assistance  of  all  kinds.  Among  them  should 
be  named  General  Archibald  C.  Niven  and  his  brother, 
Thornton  M.  Niven;  and  the  brothers,  Charles  P.  and 
Robert  Cochran — members  of  his  brother's  church  in  New 
York.  There  were  many  others,  who  differed  widely  from 
him  on  political  questions,  whose  personal  friendship  was 
unchanged.  A  visit  to  the  North  the  winter  after  the  war 
and  the  meeting  with  many  of  these  friends  brings  a  gleam 
of  sunshine  into  the  darkness  of  the  time.  On  his  return 
home  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf  (January,  1866)  : 

I  could  have  remained  a  day  longer  in  New  Brunswick, 
but  I  considered  the  matter,  and  think  I  decided  right.  In 
view  of  its  being  the  visit  of  a  rebel ;  of  the  particular  sea- 
son of  the  year ;  and  of  your  father's  occupation  at  such  a 
busy  time,  I  concluded  that  it  was  best  for  me  to  leave 
when  I  did.  Then  I  could  not  have  had  another  evening 
more  pleasant,  something  might  have  occurred  to  make  it 
less  so.  Your  father  was  so  genial,  Mrs.  Terhune  so  kind, 
and  my  seat  on  the  little  lounge  so  near  the  fire — chilly 
body  that  I  am — that  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  the 
course  of  another  evening  would  run  as  smooth.  I  always 
like  the  dessert  to  come  at  the  end  of  the  feast.  I  enjoyed 
mine  to  the  full,  and  so  came  away  content. 


238  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

This  entire  visit  to  the  North  has  been  a  memorable  one. 
My  friends  seemed  to  be  anxious  to  make  it  in  every  way 
pleasant  to  me,  and  at  no  former  time  did  I  receive  more 
marked  and  kind  attention. 

In  February  he  wrote  again,  and  the  shadow  has  returned, 
though  he  writes  with  more  of  hope : 

Since  I  came  home,  I  have  been  working  hard ;  very 
hard,  that  is,  for  lazy  me.  I  am  stimulated  to  make  more 
careful  preparation  than  usual  for  my  Sunday  services  be- 
cause of  the  crowds  which  throng  my  church.  In  the  after- 
noons, especially,  the  people  come  long  before  the  hour, 
and  many  have  to  go  away  because  they  cannot  find  stand- 
ing or  sitting-room.  I  hope  some  day  to  see  you  among  my 
auditors,  but  I  fear  the  times  are  too  sorrowful,  as  yet,  to 
permit  you  to  enjoy  a  visit  to  Virginia.  Our  people  are  be- 
coming increasingly  depressed.  There  is  scarcely  any  busi- 
ness done,  and  the  scarcity  of  money  and  the  gloomy  pros- 
pects of  the  future  causes  care,  like  a  vast  shadow,  to  rest 
over  everything.  The  most  animated  and  cheerful  day  we 
have  is  Sunday,  when  people  seem  to  forget  their  troubles 
for  a  while,  and  crowd  the  churches,  seeking  for  solace 
there. 

I  have  much  to  be  thankful  for  and  to  make  me  happy 
at  home,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  abounding  and  surrounding 
privations  and  sorrow. 

Susan  and  Mrs.  Brown,  Bess,  Mary  and  Lacy,^  five  of 
the  best  of  their  sex,  all  contribute  in  their  several  ways  to 
my  comfort.  Then  Addison  is  a  noble  boy,  and  little  Moses 
is  a  fountain  of  joy  to  me.  And  as  to  temporal  matters, 
though  I  lost  some  thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars  by  the 
termination  of  the  war,  I  have  been  abundantly  provided 
for,  and  had  we  gained  our  cause,  would  not  have  thought 
twice  about  that  trifle.  This,  however,  is  an  Irish  way  of 
stating  it,  for  had  we  gained  our  cause,  I  would  not  have 
lost  my  property. 

Let  all  this  pass.  We  have  a  future  to  face  ;  and,  though 
there  is  nothing  bright  in  the  political  sky,  yet  there  may 

^  On  the  death  of  his  brother  he  had  taken  to  his  own  home  his 
iDfother's  two  older  children,  Lacy  and  Addison.  The  younger  children 
remained  with  their  mother. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  239 

be  a  reaction  which  may  yet  restore  to  us  a  constitutional 
government. 

I  wish  the  millennium  and  the  personal  reign  of  Christ 
on  earth  were  as  certain  as  Dr.  Gumming  would  have  us 
believe.  Though  I  do  not  believe  with  the  personal  advent 
people,  I  constantly  find  myself  wishing  their  doctrine 
might  be  true;  as  the  quickest  and  most  certain  way  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  misrule  and  unrest  with  which  the 
world  is  filled. 

When  reconstruction  was  having  its  perfect  work,  at  the 
time  of  the  Underwood  Convention,  he  wrote : 

Richmond,  January  8,  1868. 

My  Dear  Sister  :  The  date  at  the  top  of  this  letter  ^ 
reminds  me  of  a  man  who,  with  all  his  faults,  was  one  of 
the  most  unselfish  patriots  this  country  every  produced; 
brave  as  Julius  C^sar,  and  inflexible  in  his  adherence  to 
what  he  thought  right  as  Aristides.  When  a  boy,  I  spent 
a  day  at  the  Hermitage,  and  I  cherish  the  remembrance  of 
his  kindness  to  me  during  the  visit.  He  said  he  would  be 
gone  first,  but  that  I  would  live  to  see  this  land  rent  with 
civil  war.  It  may  have  been  old  age,  it  may  have  been 
second  sight,  but  his  predictions  as  to  the  future  of  the 
country  were  all  gloomy.  The  only  alleviation  I  have,  in 
contemplating  the  ruin  of  the  South,  is  that  I  was  prepared 
for  it,  in  case  we  did  not  maintain  our  cause  in  the  field. 
Some  of  my  friends  thought  my  apprehensions  were  ex- 
treme during  the  war,  when  I  insisted  that  if  we  did  not 
succeed  in  the  conflict,  our  humiliation  and  oppression  after 
defeat  would  be  well-nigh  intolerable. 

For  one,  at  least,  I  am  not  surprised  at  what  has  come  to 
pass.  Nothing  would  induce  me  to  enter  our  Capitol. 
Others  have  gone  in  from  curiosity,  but  I  wish  to  escape 
the  spectacle  of  beastly  baboons  sitting  where  sages  and 
patriots  once  sat.  The  negroes  now  engaged  in  the  work 
of  making  organic  laws  for  the  people  of  Virginia  are  not 
only  most  of  them  depraved  men,  but,  in  a  number  of  in- 
stances, men  convicted  of  scandalous  crimes.  The  mulatto 
who  represents  Richmond  was  formerly  newspaper  car- 

*  The  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  long  celebrated  by 
the  admirers  of  "Old  Hickory"  as  "St.  Jackson's  Day." 


240  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

rier  for  the  Dispatch,  but,  being  detected  in  defrauding  his 
employers,  was  tried,  convicted  by  the  court,  and  publicly 
whipped.  Of  course,  this  state  of  things  is  too  absurd  to 
continue  forever;  but  when  the  great  reaction  comes,  the 
work  will  have  been  done ;  everything  distinctive  and  dear 
in  our  Southern  life  will  have  vanished,  and  whatever 
material  prosperity  may  visit  Virginia,  it  must  come 
through  immigrants,  aliens  and  strangers. 

Do  not  imagine,  however,  that  I  allow  these  great  calam- 
ities to  make  me  moody  or  indifferent  to  the  blessings  yet 
remaining.  I  still  have  literature  to  beguile  me,  if  not 
politics ;  I  have  innumerable  family  mercies ;  and  I  have 
more  to  interest  me  in  my  church  than  ever  before.  Last 
Sunday  we  took  up  our  collection  for  "Sustentation,"  and 
the  contribution  was  the  largest  ever  taken  up  in  my 
church,  considering  the  poverty  of  the  people.  Last  Sun- 
day we  had  the  largest  Sunday-school  that  ever  met  since 
its  organization,  and  a  new  spirit  and  life  seems  to  pervade 
every  interest  connected  with  it.  The  old  crowds  continue. 
We  fill  the  aisles  with  settees,  but  cannot,  by  any  such  helps, 
accommodate  the  people. 

Overwhelmed  with  the  calamities  that  had  befallen  them 
and  dreading  the  impending  evils  of  the  unknown  future, 
there  were  not  a  few  in  the  South  who  favored  a  migration 
of  the  whole  population  to  some  virgin  land,  where  they 
might  build  up  their  civilization  in  freedom.  Against  this 
movement  General  Lee  set  his  face  unflinchingly;  and  so 
did  Dr.  Hoge,  though  constantly  in  receipt  of  letters  impor- 
tuning him  to  throw  himself  into  such  a  movement.  His 
letters  show  that  a  noble  purpose  sustained  him :  to  conserve 
what  was  left  from  the  wreck  of  the  past ;  to  train  up  a  new 
generation,  fitted  to  meet  the  new  conditions,  with  a  fidelity 
and  a  statesmanship  equal  to  that  of  their  fathers ;  to  infuse 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  into  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  that 
they  might  learn  of  Him  how  to  bear  the  cross  and  how  to 
win  the  crown  reserved  for  the  faithful ;  and  to  comfort, 
with  the  hopes  of  the  life  to  come,  those  who  in  this  life  had 
suffered  the  loss  of  all  things.  In  short,  to  set  his  face  to 
the  future,  and  "let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead." 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  241 

One  of  the  first  needs  of  the  hour  was  education.    Students 
had  flocked,  from  college  and  university,  into  the  army,  and 
for  four  years  scarcely  a  youth  in  the  whole  land  had  entered 
a  college.     Men  who  had  been  wealthy  were  now,  in  most 
cases,  unable  to  educate  their  sons,  while  the  colleges  them- 
selves were  in  financial  straits.     The  problem  was  a  serious 
one.     Dr.  Hoge's  first  care  was,  of  course,  for  his  own  be- 
loved college,  but  his  interest  was  not  confined  to  it.     Ven- 
erable professors  sought  his  aid  in  getting  public  support 
restored  to  the  State  University.     On  the  death  of  General 
Lee,  the  friends  of  Washington  College  sought  his  coopera- 
tion in  placing  the  Lee  monument  at  the  scene  of  his  last 
labors,  that  his  unfinished  work  might  yet  have  the  mighty 
influence  of  his  name.    During  the  life  of  General  Lee,  their 
correspondence  shows  a  cordial  cooperation  in  the  common 
cause.     And  they  builded  wiser  than  they  knew.     A  man 
whose  fame  had  filled  the  world,  who  had  commanded  one  of 
the  greatest  armies  of  history,  sits  down  and  writes  to  Dr. 
Hoge  about  the  summer  employment  of  indigent  students. 
Was  it  an  insignificant  work  ?    Every  student  named  in  those 
letters  has  done  useful  work  in  church  and  state,  and  one,  of 
whom  special  mention  was  made,  after  filling  an  honorable 
place  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  has  represented  it  at  one 
of  the  greatest  capitals  of  the  old  world.     This  was  their 
work— to  prepare  a  new  generation  for  the  duties  that  were 
to  come. 

Dr.  Hoge  also  felt  keenly  the  need  of  a  literature  for  the 
South.  There  were  journals  devoted  to  the  memories  of  the 
past,  but  his  object  was  different.  The  Southern  people 
needed  to  come  into  contact  with  the  literature  and  culture  of 
the  world;  but  the  Northern  journals  were  too  full  of  their 
recent  triumph  to  be  agreeable  reading  in  the  South.  So  he 
looked  abroad,  and  from  the  cream  of  the  British  journals 
filled  the  pages  of  the  Richmond  Eclectic,  which  he  founded 
and  conducted  for  one  year.  It  was  then  transferred  to 
Baltimore  as  the  Southern  Eclectic,  under  the  editorship  of 


242  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Mr.  J.  Lawrence  Turnbull,  and,  dropping  the  eclectic  fea- 
ture, finally  became  the  Southern  Magazine,  conducted  by 
Dr.  William  Hande  Brown. 

But  his  great  work  was  in  his  church.  This  was  his  solace 
and  his  joy.  Its  work  absorbed  his  energies,  its  prosperity 
cheered  his  heart  and  stimulated  him  to  his  highest  endeavor. 
The  political  sky  might  be  lowering,  the  material  horizon 
full  of  portent,  but  here  was  peace.  In  the  pulpit  he  was  free ; 
free,  not  to  wail  over  the  disappointed  hopes  of  his  people,  or 
to  assail  their  victorious  foes,  but  to  preach  the  everlasting 
gospel  of  the  blessed  God,  and  to  declare  the  righteousness 
of  that  kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world.  To  this  prin- 
ciple he  kept  his  church  true.  The  best  proof  of  it  is  that 
both  General  Patrick  and  (after  him)  General  Schofield,  the 
Federal  commanders  in  charge  of  "District  One,"  were  both 
pew-holders  in  his  church ;  and  that  Chief  Justice  Chase  was 
a  regular  worshipper  there,  and  the  last  sermon  he  ever 
heard  was  within  its  walls. 

A  letter  from  General  Patrick  is  full  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship. He  had  resigned  from  the  army  and  was  devoting 
himself  to  religious  work,  meeting  "three  or  four  times  a 
week  a  band  of  young  disciples,  of  both  sexes,  numbering 
seventy  or  eighty,  to  counsel  and  instruct  them." 

He  wrote  from  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  February  15,  1866: 

I  often  feel,  and  especially  since  the  receipt  of  your  letter, 
that  I  would  dearly  love  to  spend  some  weeks  in  your 
church,  in  somewhat  such  manner  as  I  am  spending  my 
time  here — with  little  other  business  than  what  I  find  in  the 
vineyard  of  the  Master.  I  trust  that  the  religious  interest 
in  your  church  continues  and  increases.  May  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  be  and  abide  with  you ! 

General  Schofield  wrote  (May  23,  1898)  : 

My  Dear  Sir:  I  beg  you  to  accept  my  sincere  thanks 
for  your  kindness  in  sending  me  a  copy  of  your  Memorial 
Volume,  and  to  be  assured  of  my  high  appreciation  of  your 
reference  to  our  pleasant  relations  while  I  was  in  Rich- 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  243 

mond.  You  have  done  a  great,  good  work  in  your  Ion"- 
pastorate,  and  have  been  exceptionally  fortunate,  in  that 
your  people  have  known  how  to  appreciate  your  ability  and 
devotion.    With  great  respect, 

Sincerely  yours,  J.  M.  Schofield. 

It  was  the  noble  privilege  of  both  these  men  to  do  much 
to  remove  the  bitterness  of  feeling  on  both  sides;  in  the 
South,  by  representing  in  their  own  persons  the  highest 
type  of  Northern  citizenship,  and  by  discharging  their  un- 
pleasant duties  with  a  delicacy  and  kindness  that  won  the 
respect  and  affection  of  those  over  whom  they  were  placed; 
at  the  North,  by  testifying  what  they  had  seen  as  to  the 
character  of  the  Southern  people. 

General  Patrick  speaks  of  his  efforts  in  this  latter  direc- 
tion: 

Circumstances  have  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  express 
myself  decidedly.  At  first,  and  in  our  religious  assemblies, 
there  would  be  some  rejoinder,  showing  the  animus.  For 
weeks,  however,  all  this  has  ceased,  and  in  the  gatherings, 
daily,  of  the  active  members  of  all  the  evangelical  churches, 
I  have  heard  none  of  the  stereotyped,  uncharitable  allusions 
to  the  South,  which  were,  but  a  short  time  ago,  a  great 
staple.  On  the  Sabbath  evening  preceding  the  Week  of 
Prayer,  I  took  occasion  to  say  that  if  we  expected  God's 
blessing  while  our  hearts  were  full  of  hatred  and  all  un- 
charitableness,  we  might  more  than  doubt  the  fact  of  our 
discipleship.  You  can  imagine  what  I  zvould  say  under 
such  circumstances,  as  a  Christian  man.  To  which  I  added 
that  my  right  to  speak  as  I  did,  none  could  question,  for  it 
had  been  earned  by  years  of  toil  and  danger  in  the  service 
of  the  whole  country.  It  had  more  effect  than  I  then  knew, 
because  they  had  begun  to  think  they  might  not  be  alto- 
gether without  sin  themselves. 

Noble  work  for  a  Christian  soldier !  Surely  winning  for 
him  the  blessing  the  Prince  of  Peace  has  pronounced  upon 
the  peacemaker.  In  this  connection — though  far  from  its 
proper  date — we  must  insert  a  passage  from  a  letter  of  Dr. 
Hoge's  to  another  dear  friend  at  the  North — Dr.  Henry  M. 
Field : 


244  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Providence  seems  to  have  given  you  a  special  mission  at 
this  time  in  promoting  friendly  relations  between  the 
North  and  South.  Regarding,  as  I  do,  the  man  who  fans 
the  fires  of  sectional  strife  as  the  enemy  of  country,  church, 
and  humanity  itself,  I  look  upon  the  work  of  the  reconciler 
as  the  noblest  in  which  a  Christian  patriot  can  engage.^ 

The  friendships  that  Dr.  Hoge  formed  during  this  time 
did  much  to  lift  his  mind  above  the  public  calamities  that 
weighed  upon  him  and  the  private  griefs  that  were  to  follow. 
His  friend,  Mr.  Little,  introduced  him  to  Governor  Ran- 
dolph, of  New  Jersey.  An  instant  attachment  sprang  up 
between  them.  When  Mr.  Randolph  entered  the  Senate,  it 
was  his  frequent  custom  to  run  down  to  Richmond  to  spend 
Sunday  at  Dr.  Hoge's,  and  Dr.  Hoge  was  a  frequent  guest 
at  the  Randolphs'  beautiful  home  in  Morristown,  and  was 
chosen  to  dedicate  the  new  Presbyterian  Church,  of  which 
Mr.  Randolph  was  a  leading  member.  Among  the  guests 
whom  he  met  at  Senator  Randolph's  was  General  George  B. 
McClellan.  The  meeting,  under  these  circumstances,  was 
pleasanter  than  it  would  have  been  in  the  stormy  summer  of 
1862.  Here,  too,  he  frequently  met  General  Fitz  John  Por- 
ter, to  whom  he  was  greatly  drawn,  and  in  whose  vindica- 
tion, by  Mr.  Randolph's  devoted  efforts,  he  sincerely  re- 
joiced. Dr.  Hoge  once  wrote  Mr.  Randolph  a  letter  on  his 
birthday — the  letter  of  a  friend,  the  outpouring  of  his  affec- 
tion. Mr.  Randolph  showed  it-  to  Mr.  Bayard,  who  re- 
marked, ''I  wish  I  had  a  friend  to  write  me  a  letter  like  that." 
On  the  first  opportunity,  Mr.  Randolph  introduced  them, 
leading  to  a  most  cordial  friendship  between  them  also. 

But  most  of  these  incidents  were  in  happier  days — long 
after  the  time  of  which  we  write;  and  we  must  turn  back 
again,  to  speak  of  another  friend — this  time  in  his  own  city 
and  in  his  own  church. 

One  of  the  foremost  men  in  Richmond,  a  leader  at  the  bar 
and  in  public  life,  was  Robert  Ould;    a  man  of  splendid 

^  Compare  also  remarks  in  his  address  on  "The  Private  Soldier," 
Appendix,  page  458. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  245 

intellectual  endowments  and  of  noble  personal  qualities,  but 
from  his  youth  addicted  to  intemperance  and  irreligion. 
Suddenly,  to  the  surprise  of  every  one,  he  began  to  attend 
upon  Dr.  Hoge's  ministry.  The  power  of  the  gospel  took 
hold  upon  his  heart;  his  intellect  grasped  the  magnificent 
scheme  of  revelation;  his  life  was  transformed  by  divine 
grace,  and  he  consecrated  his  noble  gifts  to  the  service  of 
Christ.  Every  Sunday  he  lectured  to  a  Bible-class  of  men, 
giving  to  this  work  the  same  careful  preparation  as  to  a 
brief  for  the  Court  of  Appeals.  He  became  a  ruling  elder  in 
the  church,  and  one  of  the  most  loyal  and  valued  friends  Dr. 
Hoge  ever  had. 

We  may  get  a  glimpse,  from  the  following  letter,  of  what 
one  strong  soul,  filled  with  the  messages  of  God,  may  be  to 
another  soul  of  kindred  endowments,  struggling  into  the 
light  and  liberty  of  God's  children.  In  a  letter  from  Judge 
Ould  to  his  pastor  (August,  1870)  he  says: 

I  have  laid  aside  my  political  pen.  I  feel,  with  you,  that 
there  are  "themes  higher  and  more  important."  Oh !  my 
dear  friend,  as  you  love  me  and  my  soul,  if  you  see  me 
following  that  or  any  other  vain  thing,  do  again  what  you 
have  so  gently  done  here,  recall  me  to  the  fields  where  I 
can  be  a  fellow-laborer  with  my  Master,  at  his  side  and 
under  his  loving  eye.  Lamenting,  as  I  do,  that  the  best  of 
my  years  were  degraded  by  rebellion  against  his  rule,  if 
I  know  myself,  my  earnest  desire  is  to  consecrate  those 
which  are  left  to  his  service  and  honor.  And,  though  it  is 
my  duty  to  seek  out  avenues  of  usefulness — nay,  to  make 
them  where  they  are  not  found — yet  I  sincerely  trust  that 
if,  in  the  field  under  your  eye,  you  see  any  duty,  however 
humble  or  laborious  it  may  be,  which  you  believe  I  am  the 
proper  person  to  discharge,  you  will  put  upon  me  the  priv- 
ilege of  doing  it.  You  told  me  once,  in  the  early  history 
of  my  Christian  experience,  that  I  might  or  could  be  of 
good  service  in  this  part  of  the  Lord's  vineyard  committed 
to  you.  I  have  no  higher  hope  than  that.  The  memory  of 
your  last  Sabbath  in  Richmond  still  lingers.  Our  heavenly 
Father  was  very  near  to  me  that  day,  and,  blessed  be  his 
holy  name,  has  been  since. 


246  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  Dr.  Hoge's  labors  were  not  con- 
fined to  his  own  congregation.  After  the  adoption  of  the 
"Spring  Resolutions,"  in  the  Assembly  of  1861,  the  South- 
ern Presbyteries  came  together  in  an  Assembly  of  their  own : 
First,  because  the  terms  of  the  resolutions  virtually  excluded 
them  from  membership  in  the  Church  whose  Assembly  had 
passed  them;  second,  because  the  political  character  of  the 
resolutions  were  inconsistent  with  the  spiritual  character  of 
the  Church,  as  held  by  the  strong  minority  who  voted 
against  them;  and,  third,  because,  even  if  a  separate  na- 
tionality did  not  require  a  separate  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, the  exigencies  of  a  great  war  made  any  other 
course  impracticable.  With  the  termination  of  the  war,  the 
latter  reason  no  longer  existed,  but,  in  the  judgment  of 
Southern  men,  the  two  former  were  not  only  operative,  but 
imperative  grounds  for  a  separate  organization. 

Except  on  the  border,  the  Southern  Church  retained  all  the 
property  in  church  buildings,  colleges  and  seminaries  pre- 
viously held  by  its  churches,  presbyteries  and  synods,  but  all 
its  missionary  agencies  had  to  be  built  up  from  the  ground. 
Dr.  Hoge  had  none  of  Dr.  Thornwell's  genius  for  organi- 
zation, and  rarely  accepted  an  election  to  the  General  As- 
sembly ;  but  in  such  matters  as  the  preparation  of  the  Hymn- 
book  and  the  revision  of  the  Directory  of  Worship — not 
finally  adopted  until  long  after  this  time — his  rare  taste  and 
sound  practical  judgment  were  invaluable.  His  correspond- 
ence on  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  church 
was  great,  and  in  his  daily  counsels  with  Dr.  Brown,  many 
luminous  suggestions  found  their  way  through  him  into  the 
columns  of  the  Central  Presbyterian,  and  into  the  councils 
of  the  church.  Dr.  Brown  was  clerk  of  the  Assembly,  and 
both  in  that  body  and  in  presbytery  and  synod,  one  of  the 
most  sagacious  counsellors  the  church  ever  had. 

The  Assembly's  Committee  of  Publication  was  placed  at 
Richmond  from  the  beginning  of  its  work  during  the  war, 
and  from  the  beginning  Dr.  Hoge  was  its  chairman — con- 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  247 

stant  in  his  attendance,  indefatigable  in  his  labors  in  its 
behalf.  His  manner  in  presiding  over  such  a  body  was  ideal : 
hearing  all  that  was  said  on  any  subject  with  patient  defer- 
ence, and  suggesting  at  the  close  some  plan  that  would,  if 
possible,  harmonize  all  views  and  best  secure  the  desired  re- 
sults. In  a  dark  hour  that  overtook  the  publication  work,  he 
undertook  the  most  painful  work  of  his  life,  and  raised  the 
funds  necessary  to  save  it  from  disaster  and  disgrace. 

In  1866  he  was  appointed,  with  Drs.  Palmer  and  Girar- 
deau, to  visit  the  churches  of  Scotland,  and  other  Presby- 
terian bodies  abroad,  for  the  cultivation  of  friendly  relations 
and  to  solicit  aid  in  supplying  the  vast  destitutions  of  the 
South.  Through  friends  in  England  he  sounded  the  leading 
men  of  some  of  those  bodies,  and  finding  them  averse  to 
receiving  the  delegation,  the  members  decided  not  to  go, 
thereby  saving  the  Church  from  a  rebuff. 

The  Assembly  was  then  painfully  struggling  with  the 
problem  of  colored  evangelization,  and  certain  resolutions 
of  that  year  had  given  offence  abroad.  The  resolutions  were 
prepared  by  one  who  had  devoted  himself  peculiarly  to 
preaching  to  the  colored  people,  and  were  meant  for  their 
good ;  but  it  was  recognized  by  the  next  Assembly  that  they 
departed  from  Presbyterian  principles  and  they  were  re- 
scinded. 

In  all  his  work  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  South,  there  was 
no  class  that  excited  Dr.  Hoge's  interest  and  sympathy  more 
than  the  colored  people  themselves.  His  relations  to  them 
had  always  been  peculiarly  friendly;  he  had  always  had 
them  in  his  church  in  goodly  numbers ;  in  his  family  he  had 
treated  them  with  kindness  and  even  affection.  He  saw  them 
now  scattered  as  sheep  having  no  shepherd,  and  grievous 
wolves  entering  in  to  devour  the  flock.  As  far  as  they  would 
receive  it,  he  gave  them  counsel.  He  freely  gave  them  pecu- 
niary aid,  which  they  as  freely  received.  There  was  not  a 
church  built  by  them  in  Richmond  to  which  he  was  not  a 
subscriber,   and  the   Colored   Presbyterian   Church   recog- 


248  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

nized  that  without  his  cooperation  it  could  never  have  suc- 
ceeded. 

Any  man  can  be  happy  who  is  useful,  and  Dr.  Hoge  found 
himself  more  useful  to  his  people  and  State  and  church  than 
ever  before.  But  now  a  blow  threatened  to  strike  him  in  a 
vital  point.  Whatever  else  he  was,  whatever  else  he  did,  his 
great  power  for  usefulnesss  lay  in  his  preaching.  His  gift  of 
speech  was  to  him  what  the  Nazarite's  hair  was  to  Samson. 
Shorn  of  that,  he  would  become  weak  as  other  men.  And 
that  was  threatened.  An  attack  of  facial  paralysis  made 
speech  impossible  for  a  time,  and  threatened  to  lay  him  aside 
altogether.  Happily  it  proved  to  be  from  a  local  cause,  and 
in  a  few  months  he  was  entirely  restored.  But  the  anxiety 
of  that  time  the  following  beautiful  letter  from  Dr.  Palmer 
enables  us  to  see  and  feel : 

New  Orleans,  September  18,  1868. 

My  Dear  Brother  :  I  have  only  this  evening  returned 
from  a  missionary  jaunt  and  a  week's  solid  preaching  at 
one  of  the  points  in  our  Master's  field;  but  jaded  as  I  am, 
I  cannot  go  to  bed  without  writing  to  tell  you  how  sad  my 
heart  is  at  the  news  of  the  affliction  which  has  fallen  upon 
you ;  and  not  less  upon  the  Church,  in  the  interdict  threat- 
ened to  be  placed  upon  your  labors.  I  had  not  heard  a 
whisper  of  this  great  calamity,  until  my  friend,  Dr.  Rich- 
ardson, of  this  city,  was  kind  enough  to  place  in  my  hands 
your  letter,  addressed  professionally  to  himself.  It  is  but 
an  hour  since  I  read  it ;  and  you  must  not  accuse  him  of  a 
breach  of  confidence  in  showing  it  to  me,  for  it  was  in  the 
fullness  of  his  own  sympathy,  and  with  assurance  that  I 
would  share  the  sorrow  with  him  to  the  utmost.  Indeed  I 
do,  not  only  for  the  love  I  have  personally  to  yourself,  but 
for  the  deeper  love  I  have  for  the  kingdom  of  our  common 
Master. 

I  know  you  will  bow  beneath  this  stroke  with  a  patient 
and  cheerful  submission ;  yet,  putting  my  soul  in  your 
soul's  stead,  I  think  I  can  feel  the  full  force  of  the  trial. 

There  can  be  no  dispensation  of  providence  more  severe 
than  to  be  put  aside  from  the  Lord's  work,  to  those  who 
love  to  preach  the  blessed  gospel ;   and  it  will  cost  you  a 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  249 

struggle  to  be  wholly  reconciled  to  it.  The  concurrent 
opinion  of  all  your  physicians  gives  ground  for  hope  that 
it  will  not  come  to  that ;  and  many  prayers  will  go  up  from 
many  hearts,  all  over  this  land,  that  you  may  be  restored  to 
the  pulpit,  and  to  that  career  of  usefulness  and  honor  which 
you  have  so  long  pursued ;  but,  my  dear  brother,  if  your 
worst  apprehensions  should  be  realized,  you  have  cause  for 
profoundest  gratitude  to  God,  in  that  you  have  been  per- 
mitted for  five  and  twenty  years  to,  proclaim  the  riches  of 
divine  mercy  to  lost  men.  Already,  many  seals  have  been 
given  you  of  your  acceptance  in  this  blessed  work,  and  a 
rich  reward  of  grace  is  already  secured  to  you  in  our  Fa- 
ther's kingdom.  God  grant  this  to  be  only  a  temporary 
suspension  of  your  labors ;  and  that,  in  the  prime  of  life 
and  in  the  richness  of  your  powers,  you  may  come  back  to 
the  pulpit  with  a  new  unction,  and  with  a  new  appreciation 
of  the  privilege  of  being  an  ambassador  for  Christ.  Even 
as  the  case  now  stands,  it  is  an  effective  lesson  to  us  all, 
how  easily  the  Master  can  dispense  with  the  service  of  the 
best  of  us.  We  are  so  prone  to  think  this  and  that  man  to 
be  necessary  to  the  church  ;  the  Lord  quietly  sets  them  aside 
.and  teaches  us  that  the  kingdom,  and  the  glory  of  it,  belong 
to  him. 

You  have  another  sore  affliction  in  the  peril  which 
threatens  your  beloved  wife;  but  she,  too,  is  in  the  Sav- 
iour's hands,  where  she  is  content  to  lie,  and  where  you  are 
willing  to  leave  her.  In  all  these  sorrows,  be  assured  of 
the  sympathy  and  love  of  all  your  brethren,  who  would 
shield  you,  if  they  could,  and  if  they  did  not  remember 
that  you  are  in  the  keeping  of  One  who  loves  you  infinitely 
"better  than  they.  God  bless  you,  dear  Hoge,  and  sustain 
and  comfort  you,  and  make  you  and  us  sweetly  submissive 
to  all  his  holy  will.  I  write  in  haste,  only  to  breathe  out  the 
sorrow  of  my  own  heart,  in  sharing  your  affliction. 

Ever  yours  in  Christ  Jesus,  B.  M.  Palmer. 

The  closing  paragraph  of  Dr.  Palmer's  letter  foreshadows 
another  sorrow,  which,  unlike  the  last,  was  not  to  pass. 

No  man  was  happier  in  his  married  life  than  Dr.  Hoge; 
no  woman  more  truly  supplemented  her  husband  than  did  his 
wife.     Her  naturally  bright  mind  had  been  carefully  culti- 


250  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

vated.  Her  practical  qualities  supplied  his  most  conspicu- 
ous lack.  Her  solicitous  care  in  his  frequent  ill  health,  again 
and  again  prevented  his  breaking  under  the  strain.  Her 
sunny  disposition  cheered  him  in  the  despondency  to  which 
in  earlier  years  he  was  prone,  and  filled  his  home  with 
brightness  and  good  cheer.  Her  patience  under  physical 
pain  and  frequent  bereavement  helped  him  to  "suffer  and  be 
strong."  Her  goodness  and  unselfishness  won  to  herself  and 
to  him  the  hearts  of  the  sad  and  the  needy  and  the  suffering, 
and  her  ready  tact  smoothed  over  the  many  rough  places 
that  lie  in  a  minister's  path.  Above  all,  "the  heart  of  her 
husband"  did  "safely  trust  in  her,"  resting  in  her  love  with 
an  absolute  repose  and  a  perfect  satisfaction. 

During  the  twenty- four  years  of  their  married  life  she  had 
lost  father,  mother,  brother,  five  grown  sisters,  and  four 
children;  the  last,  little  Genevieve,^  dying  at  Mr.  James 
Seddon's,  just  when  their  hearts  were  already  crushed  with 
the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy.  But  through  all  these  sor- 
rows her  spirit  bore  up  bravely.  For  her  children  and  their 
young  friends,  with  whom  the  house  was  always  filled,  she 
always  had  a  bright  face  and  cheerful  words.  She  made 
their  evenings  happy  with  music  and  song  and  all  innocent 
pleasures,  and,  even  when  her  own  heart  was  heavy,  sought 
to  make  their  lives  glad.  During  Dr.  Hoge's  absence  in 
England,  her  heart  burdened  with  the  anxiety  of  the  separa- 
tion and  crushed  by  the  bitter  sorrow  of  their  bereavement,, 
she  found  time  and  heart  to  think  also  of  the  general  distress, 
and  divided  her  time  between  home  and  hospitals.  Neither 
her  husband  nor  her  children  could  recall  one  unkind  or  im- 
patient word  ever  falling  from  her  lips.  Her  character  was 
a  rare  combination  of  gentleness  and  strength,  sustained  by 
divine  grace  and  by  daily  communion  with  God.  Whatever 
else  pressed  upon  her,  nothing  was  permitted  to  interfere 
with  her  morning  hour  of  devotion,  so  that  she  always  met 

^  Born  October  10,  1864 ;    died  June  7,  1865. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  251 

the  day's  duties  and  trials  with  a  spirit  refreshed  as  by  the 
dew  of  heaven. 

In  the  spring-  of  1868,  a  fatal  disease  fastened  itself  upon 
her — one  of  the  most  painful  to  which  our  poor  humanity  is- 
subject.  She  bore  it  with  the  same  patience  and  fortitude 
with  which  she  had  met  other  trials.  In  September  she  wrote 
Mrs.  Greenleaf  from  Brooklyn : 

I  should  like  to  see  your  dear  face  once  more,  as  it  is  the 
last  visit  I  shall  make  North.  My  health  has  been  failing- 
since  last  spring,  and  my  husband  and  friends  urged  me  to 
spend  the  hot  season  on  the  borders  of  Canada,  hoping  it 
would  benefit  me  ;  but  it  has  failed,  like  other  means.  Al- 
though I  look  well,  I  am  a  constant  sufiferer.  My  husband's 
health,  also,  has  been  very  bad  for  two  months,  but  the  last 
letter  from  him  at  the  Hot  Springs  was  more  cheerful  and 
encouraging.  Good  little  Mary  has  had  the  care  of 
Moses  and  my  dear  little  sick  baby  ^  all  the  summer 
in  the  mountains,  but  she  writes  that  he  is  nearly  well 
now.  Bessie  came  along  to  take  care  of  me,  the  biggest 
baby  of  all. 

In  October,  Miss  Bessie  Hoge  wrote  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf: 

You  scarcely  ever  saw  a  greater  sufferer  in  your  life, 
and  certainly  no  human  spirit  so  purified,  gentle  and 
loving.  During  this  distressing  decline  of  three  months, 
no  impatient  word,  no  murmuring  expression,  has  ever 
escaped  those  poor  fever-parched  lips.  Oh !  the  sustaining- 
grace  that  is  granted  her !  She  is  so  calm  that  nothing 
seems  to  ruffle  the  repose  of  her  soul.  The  only  shadows 
that  cross  it  are  the  thoughts  of  leaving  Father  and  her 
children,  especially  the  bright,  dear  little  boys.  Her  pros- 
tration has  been  extreme  during  the  past  few  days;  at 
times  she  was  not  even  strong  enough  to  be  propped  up  in 
bed  with  pillows.  Father  is  still  an  invalid  from  his  paraly- 
sis, his  eyes  being  distressingly  affected  by  it.  Then,  too, 
he  is  very  nervous,  partly  from  the  disease,  but  more  from 
anxietyand  loss  of  rest. 

^  Hampden,  born  January  6,  1867. 


252  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

And  again  November  9th : 

Mother  has  been  very  ill  indeed,  and  required  the  most 
constant  attention  night  and  day  during  the  past  week,  but 
for  the  past  twenty-four  hours  she  has  been  more  com- 
fortable. This  weather  is  the  perfection  of  temperature 
and  most  fortunate  for  her ;  the  windows  are  all  open,  and 
the  flowers  are  so  luxuriant  and  beautiful,  the  quantities  of 
roses  would  surprise  you  ;  each  day  brings  a  fresh  bouquet. 

Mrs.  Brown  is  perfectly  invaluable  as  a  nurse,  so  quiet, 
so  skilful,  so  ready ;  she  is  a  real  household  blessing. 
Father  has  not  been  quite  so  well  lately,  but  he  keeps  up 
wonderfully  considering  his  wearing  anxiety,  church  work, 
and  nursing  mother  the  greater  part  of  each  night,  refusing 
even  our  assistance  until  three  or  four  o'clock ;  and  he  will 
persist  in  doing  this  as  long  as  he  has  strength.  His  eyes 
are  so  much  affected  that  at  times  he  is  totally  unable  either 
to  read  or  write ;  but  he,  too,  is  learning  submission. 

We  all  feel  it  to  be  such  a  privilege  to  be  with  mother, 
to  see  how  our  heavenly  Father  enables  his  children,  even 
in  passing  through  fiery  trials,  to  glorify  Him. 

On  the  13th,  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  himself: 

The  two  letters  you  have  recently  written  did  not  de- 
mand, but  deserved  immediate  answers.  I  must  try  to 
reply  to  both,  as  my  dear  wife  will  probably  never  take  a 
pen  in  hand  again.  Before  I  had  a  good  opportunity  of 
thanking  you  for  your  kind  remembrance  of  me,  your 
tender  letter  to  her  arrived.  This  was  only  another  of  the 
great  number  of  most  affectionate  and  comforting  ones  she 
has  been  receiving  of  late  from  friends  \\\\o  have  heard  of 
her  rapid  decline. 

A  few  evenings  since,  one  came  from  Dr.  Palmer,  of 
New  Orleans,  commencing  with  the  most  delicate  apology 
for  his  seeming  intrusion,  and  then  unfolding,  in  his  apt 
and  impressive  way,  the  consolations  of  the  gospel  for  the 
suffering  child  of  God. 

Susan  was  much  affected  by  this  token  of  sympathy 
from  so  distant  a  quarter,  coming,  too,  from  one  with 
whom  she  had  never  met  but  once. 

I  have  never  seen  a  community  so  moved  as  this  is  by  the 
sickness  of  one  not  occupying  some  high  official  position. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  253 

I  can  hardly  walk  the  streets  for  the  number  of  persons 
who  stop  me  to  inquire  after  her,  and  our  physician  says 
that  he,  too,  is  constantly  arrested  in  the  same  way.  It  is 
an  illustration  of  what  a  power  simple  goodness  is,  and 
what  influence  can  be  gained  by  one  who  never  thought  of 
popularity,  and  who  lived  an  unobtrusive,  unselfish  life, 
caring  little  for  self,  but  full  of  sympathy  for  others. 

Bessie  told  me  of  a  little  incident  the  other  day  that  was 
so  characteristic  of  her  that  I  will  give  it  to  you.  The 
negro  barber,  who  formerly  was  employed  by  us,  and  who 
always  came  to  the  house  to  cut  the  children's  hair,  has 
been  sick  with  consumption  for  a  year  or  two,  and  almost 
forgotten  by  his  own  race.  Susan  had  a  nice  partridge 
cooked  for  him  and  some  light  rolls,  with  fresh  butter,  and 
some  fruit  and  flowers,  all  nicely  arranged  in  a  basket,  and 
sent  it  to  him,  with  a  note  which  she  dictated  to  Bessie,  ex- 
pressing her  sympathy  for  him  in  his  sickness,  and  her  best 
wishes  for  his  spiritual  welfare.  The  servant  who  carried 
the  basket  said  the  poor  fellow  was  quite  overcome  by  the 
kindness,  and  wept  freely  when  he  saw  what  Mrs.  Hoge 
had  written  to  him.  But  why  should  I  tell  you  of  such 
things — you  who  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  for  your- 
self her  manner  of  life,  during  successive  months  of  per- 
sonal association  with  her  ? 

As  her  malady  is  one  of  the  most  painful  of  all  to  which 
the  human  frame  is  liable,  I  dreaded  lest  it  might  make  her 
feel  that  it  was  a  harsh  and  unkind  providence ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  all  her  talk  when  we  are  alone  is  about  God's 
wonderful  goodness  and  mercy  to  her.  She  is  amazed  at 
his  making  her  the  object  of  his  loving-kindness.  This  is 
my  greatest  support — her  patient  endurance  of  suffering 
the  most  acute,  and  her  entire  acquiescence  in  the  will  of 
God. 

I  am  sure  this  is  the  most  useful  period  of  her  life.  All 
who  visit  her  room  go  away  with  new  impressions  of  the 
power  of  divine  grace  to  sustain  and  comfort  in  every 
distress.  When  she  thanked  Dr.  Minnigerode  (of  the 
Episcopal  Church)  for  a  very  pleasant  visit  he  made  her 
yesterday,  he  said,  "Oh !  no ;  you  are  under  no  obligations 
to  me,  but  I  am  truly  grateful  to  you  for  permitting  me  to 
come ;  for  I  go  away  with  my  own  faith  confirmed  and  my 
own  hope  animated  by  seeing  what  God  is  doing  for  you." 
You  see  I  go  on  telling  you  these  things,  with  much  detail, 


254  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

because  I  know  I  am  not  writing  to  a  stranger,  or  to  one 
indifferent  to  such  exhibitions  of  gracious  affections,  in 
whom  God  exemplifies  the  riches  of  his  goodness  and  love. 
As  to  my  own  ailments,  I  have  almost  recovered  from  the 
most  unexpected  and  distressing  attack  of  facial  paralysis 
I  had  last  June.  At  first  I  feared  it  might  be  cerebral,  but 
it  proved  to  be  entirely  local  and  functional,  and  I  suppose, 
at  the  present  rate  of  improvement,  by  another  month  there 
will  not  be  a  trace  of  it  left.  I  trust,  however,  that  some 
•of  the  effects  of  it  will  be  permanent.  If  I  am  not  deceived, 
no  affliction  was  ever  so  blessed  to  me,  and,  accepting  it  as 
the  chastening  of  the  Lord,  it  is  my  supreme  desire  so  to 
live  that  every  year,  and  month,  and  day  of  my  life  may 
be  spent  profitably  to  myself  and  usefully  to  others. 

Early  Monday  morn,  the  23d,  the  long  weariness  and 
pain  was  over,  and  she  entered  into  rest.  Dr.  Moore  closed 
his  brief  address  at  her  funeral — brief  because  of  her  request 
— with  these  words  : 

And  when  the  last  stem  struggle  came,  and  she  knew 
that  she  was  entering  the  dark  valley,  she  declared  that  the 
twenty-third  Psalm  was  a  complete  and  exact  expression 
of  her  experience — that  the  Good  Shepherd,  who  liad  led 
her  all  her  life  long  in  the  green  pastures  and  by  the  still 
waters,  was  with  her  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
.supporting  her  spirit  by  "the  strong  rod  and  the  beautiful 
staff,"  and  would  surely  lead  her  through  the  gates  of  the 
city  to  her  home  in  her  Father's  house  above.  And  as  the 
earthly  Sabbath,  which  she  loved  so  well,  was  silently 
passing  toward  the  dawn  of  a  new  day,  there  dawned  on 
her  waiting  vision  that  day  that  has  no  night. 

Dr.  Hoge  w^rote  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf  (February  23,  1869)  : 

Among  the  many  letters  which  came  to  me  from  every 
part  of  the  country,  expressing  sympathy  for  me  in  my 
great  bereavement,  there  were  few  so  prized  as  yours ; 
for  you  who  knew  us  both  so  well  could  appreciate  all  that 
was  involved  in  it  better  than  others.  Letters  of  con- 
dolence written  out  of  the  hearts  of  Christian  friends  are 
often  of  real  service  in  suggesting  consolations  which 
grief  had  overlooked  in  its  blinding  tears,  and  by  prompt- 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  255 

ing  to  the  discharge  of  duties  which  a  heavy  heart  had 
forgotten. 

It  is  three  months  this  morning  since  my  dear  Susan 
died.  It  seems  more  like  three  years.  Once  time  seemed 
to  fly,  now  it  creeps  or  drags  heavily  along.  Surrounded 
as  I  am  by  my  affectionate  children  and  many  kind  friends, 
there  are  times  when  I  feel  as  solitary  as  if  I  were  the  only 
person  on  the  earth. 

I  do  not  wish  you  to  infer  that  I  am  indulging  in  any 
sentimental  sorrow,  or  brooding  over  my  grief,  or  neglect- 
ing any  social  or  public  duty  because  of  what  has  happened. 

I  am  not.  Notwithstanding  the  effort  it  cost  me,  I 
preached  the  Sunday  after  Susan  was  buried,  for  reasons 
which  I  thought  almost  imperative,  and  the  example  thus 
set  has  already  borne  its  fruits  among  the  afflicted.  Nor  is 
ours  a  gloomy  household.  Though  there  is  probably  no 
day  in  which  Bess  and  Mary  do  not  go  to  some  secret  place 
to  weep,  they  are  outwardly  cheerful  and  are  attending  to 
the  new  duties  imposed  on  them  with  great  propriety. 
Bess  is  teaching  Moses,  and  Mary  has  entire  charge  of 
Hampden,  who  is  now  two  years  old. 

But  such  losses  as  yours  and  mine  seldom  occur  even  in 
the  richest  lives. 

To  his  cousin,  Mrs.  Burton,^  he  wrote : 

Ours  is  an  afflicted  household,  but  not  a  gloomy  one. 
We  meet  every  night  in  the  chamber  where  Susan  died, 
and  commune  together  about  her,  but  while  we  cherish  her 
memory  deep  in  our  hearts,  we  try  and  exhibit  to  the  world 
something  of  the  same  cheerful  submission  which  she  mani- 
fested so  sweetly  during  all  her  illness  to  the  very  last  hour. 

To  another  friend  he  wrote : 

Now  that  all  is  over,  now  that  I  have  no  wife  and  no 
country,  I  have  an  indescribable  feeling  of  having  over- 
lived my  tirne,  and  a  good  part  of  the  day  I  have  been  in 
a  sort  of  trance,  hardly  knowing  whether  what  was  passing 
was  real  or  a  dream. 

I  wonder  how  long  this  vague,  restless,  bewildering 
mental  and  spiritual  state  will  continue. 

I  have  not  really  lived  since  Susan  died. 

'  Daughter  of  Dr.  Thomas  Hoge. 


256  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Among  the  many  letters  of  sympathy  that  poured  in  upon 
him,  we  must  give  one,  as  showing  in  its  tenderest  Hght  the 
Christian  character  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  men.  Writing 
on  a  matter  of  pubHc  interest  to  the  cause  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  he  concludes  : 

And  now,  dear  Doctor,  though  perhaps  inappropriate  to 
the  subject,  you  must  allow  me  to  refer  to  a  subject  which 
has  caused  me  great  distress,  and  concerning  which  I  have 
desired  to  write  ever  since  its  occurrence;  but  to  tell  the 
truth,  I  have  not  had  the  heart  to  do  it.  I  knew  how  power- 
less I  was  to  afford  any  comfort,  to  give  any  relief,  and  how 
utterly  inadequate  was  any  language  that  I  could  use  even 
to  mitigate  your  sufferings.  I  could,  therefore,  only  offer 
up  my  silent  prayers  to  him  who  alone  can  heal  your  bleed- 
ing heart,  that,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  he  would  be  ever 
present  with  you;  to  dry  your  tears  and  staunch  your 
wounds ;  to  sustain  you  by  his  grace,  and  to  support  you 
by  his  strength.  I  hope  you  felt  assured  that  in  this  heavy 
calamity  you  and  your  children  had  the  heart-felt  sympathy 
of  myself  and  Mrs.  Lee,  and  that  you  were  daily  remem- 
bered in  our  poor  prayers. 

With  our  best  wishes  and  sincere  affection,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours,  R.  E.  Lee. 

Dr.  Hoge  always  remembered,  with  peculiar  gratitude, 
Dr.  Palmer's  kindness  at  this  time,  and  years  afterwards, 
when  he  was  similarly  bereaved,  wrote  to  him  as  follows : 

Richmond,  November  27,  1888. 
My  Dear  Dr.  Palmer  :  Of  late  years,  when  I  hear  that 
any  one  of  my  friends  has  suffered  a  great  bereavement,  I 
hesitate  to  send  immediately  the  assurance  of  my  sympathy, 
well  knowing  that  such  will  appreciate  the  sympathy  of 
silence  until  the  sorrowing  heart  has  had  time  for  self- 
communion  and  for  communion  with  the  great  Healer 
and  Comforter. 

There  is  a  sacredness  in  some  griefs  into  which  the  ten- 
derest affection  must  not  too  soon  intrude,  even  when  it 
yearns  to  give  some  expression  of  it. 

I  trust  I  may  now  be  permitted  to  say  what  my  heart 
prompted  me  to  say  the  moment  I  heard  of  your  great  loss. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  257 

It  is  a  loss,  whatever  heaven  may  have  gained,  and  what- 
ever you  may  have  gained  through  the  discipline  of  sanc- 
tified sorrow. 

Even  the  grace  of  God  does  not  make  us  insensible  of  the 
deep  sense  of  loneliness  and  privation  when  one  who  has 
been  intertwined  with  us,  life  for  life,  and  with  whom  every 
thought,  feeling  and  plan  has  been  associated  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  long  years,  has  been  taken  away. 

I  suppose  our  heavenly  Father  means  that  by  every  ex- 
perience of  trial  we  may  better  understand  the  actual  char- 
acter of  each  form  of  suffering  which  others  endure,  and 
that  thus  we  may  become  qualified  to  comfort  others  by  the 
comfort  wherewith  we  ourselves  are  comforted  of  God. 

It  is  only  in  this  way  that  I  can  interpret  the  purpose  of 
the  bereavement  you  have  sustained.  Hundreds  of  times 
you  have  spoken  words  of  consolation  to  those  whom  death 
has  bereft  of  friends,  of  brothers,  of  sisters,  of  parents, 
and  now  with  what  new  tenderness  will  you  ever  speak  to 
those  to  whom  life  can  never  again  be  what  it  was,  because 
of  another  loss  to  which  no  other  is  comparable. 

My  dear  Dr.  Palmer,  I  gratefully  remember  your  gentle 
and  loving  sympathy  when  I  was  passing  through  a  trial 
like  your  own — the  greatness  of  which  succeeding  years 
have  only  made  me  increasingly  sensible  of,  so  that  I  can 
say — 

"  Time  but  the  impression  deeper  makes, 
As  streams  their  channels  deeper  wear." 

Let  us  look  for  our  solace  in  the  heavenly  reunion  and  in 
our  increased  usefulness  on  earth. 

Yours  afifectionately,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

Two  other  calamities,  and  these  of  a  public  nature,  must 
sadden  the  pages  of  this  chapter. 

On  April  27,  1870,  the  floor  of  the  Senate  Chamber  fell  in, 
killing  sixty-five  persons,  and  wounding  two  hundred  more. 
In  a  moment,  Richmond  was  turned  into  a  house  of  mourn- 
ing. A  political  reaction  had  brought  once  more  into  public 
life  many  of  the  best  men  of  the  State,  and  the  sudden  loss  of 
so  many  such  men,  brought  back,  with  distressing  vividness, 
the  horrors  and  sorrows  of  the  war.  The  calamity  was  over- 
ruled into  a  dispensation  of  spiritual  blessing,  and,  "subdued 


258  Moses  Drury  Hoge, 

by  a  common  sadness,  the  entire  population  of  the  city  bowed 
in  penitence  before  the  Lord.^ 

On  October  12th,  of  the  same  year,  the  Great  Captain 
of  the  Confederacy  finished  his  course.  Had  he  been  struck 
down  in  the  midst  of  the  storm  of  war,  his  loss  to  the  South 
could  hardly  have  been  greater  than  now,  when  his  superb 
example  shone  like  a  guiding  star  before  the  whole  South, 
leading  them  into  the  paths  of  peaceful  endeavor,  and  in- 
spiring them  with  a  sense  of  the  dignity  of  true  manhood. 
To  Dr.  Hoge  his  death  came  not  only  as  a  public  calamity, 
but  a  personal  loss;  and  his  sermon  on  his  death  was  con- 
sidered one  of  the  noblest  efforts  of  his  life. 

As  this  decade  was  drawing  to  a  close,  a  determined  effort 
was  made  from  several  different  directions  to  remove  Dr. 
Hoge  from  Richmond.  The  great  promise  of  Washington 
College,  under  the  presidency  of  General  Lee,  made  the  call 
to  Lexington  peculiarly  attractive.  St.  Louis,  Nashville  and 
Memphis  sought  his  services  for  their  largest  churches,  and 
in  St.  Louis  his  big-hearted  cousin,  Dr.  Brookes,  wrote,  "If 
you  don't  like  Anderson's  church,^  take  mine,  and  I  will  get 
another." 

A  group  of  prominent  and  wealthy  Southerners  in  Balti- 
more were  anxious  to  found  a  new  Southern  church,  and 
pledged  to  Dr.  Hoge  an  adequate  support  and  the  rent  of  a 
suitable  building,  with  all  other  necessary  expenses,  until  a 
congregation  could  be  gathered  and  a  church  building 
erected.  At  the  same  time,  friends  in  New  York  made  over- 
tures to  him  with  regard  to  a  church  there. 

It  was  urged  upon  him  that  Richmond  was  a  hopelessly 
crippled  town;  that  it  could  never  recover  from  the  shock 
and  ravages  of  the  war;  that  in  the  larger  cities  of  the  West 
or  North,  his  usefulness  would  be  greatly  extended;    that 

*  For  a  fuller  account  see  Dr.  Hoge's  Memorial  Address  (Appen- 
dix, page  482),  and  for  his  prayer  at  the  public  meeting,  April  28,  1870, 
see  Appendix,  page  492. 

'  The  Central. 


The  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  259 

Richmond  was  the  scene  of  painful  memories,  associated 
with  public  calamity  and  private  bereavement,  and  could 
never  again  be  to  him  what  it  had  been  in  the  past. 

All  this  Dr.  Hoge  considered  and  weighed.  He  sought 
counsel  of  friends,  and — came  to  his  own  decision.  He  had 
not  made  a  decision  never  to  leave  Richmond,  but  he  had 
determined  not  to  leave  it  until  the  reasons  for  going  were 
so  overwhelming  as  to  leave  no  room  for  doubt.  He  still 
believed  in  Richmond,  and  his  heart  was  still  there.  The 
outspoken  sentiment  of  the  whole  community  counted  for 
much ;  the  tears  and  entreaties  of  his  own  people  far  more. 
Nothing  touched  his  heart  more  tenderly  than  a  well- 
thumbed  petition  from  the  operatives  in  the  Tredegar  Iron 
Works.    And  Richmond  won  the  day. 

Cheered  by  these  Avidespread  manifestations  of  apprecia- 
tion, sustained  by  the  loyalty  of  the  church  and  city  that  he 
loved  so  well,  and  for  which  he  had  done  so  much;  strength- 
ened by  the  fiery  discipline  through  which  he  had  passed,  and 
enriched  by  the  vast  and  varied  experience  through  which  he 
had  come,  he  stands  at  his  post  in  the  full  maturity  of  his 
powers,  ready  for  the  broader  fields  of  usefulness  that  lie 
before  him  in  the  more  prosperous  days  to  come. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Broader  Fields. 

1871  — 1880. 

"The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept 
Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight, 
But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 
"Were  toiling  upward  in  the  night." 

— Longfellow, 

DR.  HOGE  entered  upon  the  eighth  decade  of  the  century 
with  a  Httle  more  than  fifty  years  of  Hfe  behind  him, 
and  with  something  over  twenty-five  years  of  his  ministry 
accompHshed.  Much  of  his  Hfe  had  been  spent  in  struggle : 
struggle  in  his  boyhood  and  youth  to  educate  himself; 
struggle  in  his  early  ministry,  grappling  with  the  debt  that 
threatened  his  church  with  disaster;  struggle  in  his  maturer 
manhood  with  the  stormy  problems  of  the  war,  and  the  bitter 
problems  of  defeat ;  struggle  all  the  time  with  a  proud  and 
imperious  disposition,  which  chafed  under  the  rod  of  disci- 
pline, but  which  his  higher  nature  was  ever  seeking,  by 
grace,  to  bring  into  subjection  to  the  will  of  God.  But  his 
heavenly  Father  had  not  spared  the  rod,  and  it  was  a  serener, 
gentler,  stronger  spirit  that  came  from  under  the  rod,  and 
out  of  the  valley  into  the  serener  heights  to  which  he  had 
attained.  Henceforth  his  life  lay  before  him  like  a  broad 
table-land,  undulating,  it  is  true,  and  rising  always  towards 
the  infinite  beyond,  but  with  no  gloomy  depths  to  fathom 
and  no  perilous  heights  to  scale.  Lonely  he  often  was,  and 
often  sad ;  but  loneliness  was  enlightened  by  those  invisible 
companionships  that  a  fertile  mind  creates,  and  re-creates 
for  itself ;  and  sadness  was  sweetened  by  precious  memories 
and  blessed  hopes,  and  by  the  consciousness  of  a  mission  to 
a  world  that  was  full  of  sadness — and  of  sin. 
His  cousin,  Dr.  Brookes,  wrote  him : 


Broader  Fields.  261 

I  have  often  thought  of  you,  and  sometimes  fancied  that 
a  feeHng  of  unutterable  loneHness  must  frequently  come 
over  you  in  the  midst  of  your  most  active  duties.  The 
tenderest  ties  of  life  have  been  sundered,  and  all  the  past 
sends  the  echoes  of  the  tomb  to  your  heart.  Father,  mother, 
sister,  brother,  children,  wife,  earliest  and  dearest  friends, 
all  passed  on  before,  and  you  standing  alone,  bravely  con- 
tending against,  but  powerless  to  stay,  the  on-rushing  tide 
of  error  and  evil  and  ruin  sweeping  over  Church  and  State. 

But  Dr.  Hoge's  view  of  the  future  was  different.  He  felt 
that  the  Church  of  Christ,  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the 
apostles  and  prophets,  groweth  into  a  holy  temple  in  the 
Lord ;  and  that  not  by  a  sudden  cataclysm,  but  by  the  work 
to  which  every  builder  contributed  was  the  kingdom  of  God 
to  be  established  in  the  world. 

In  matters  of  state,  too,  the  day  was  not  far  distant  when 
he  could  say  once  more,  "Our  country,"  and  find  his  sym- 
pathies going  out  to  every  part  of  this  broad  land,  and  in 
every  part  of  that  land  he  was  to  find  himself  welcomed 
and  honored. 

His  decision  to  remain  in  Richmond  was  vindicated  very 
speedily.  It  was  his  fortune  to  have  those  things  come  to 
his  doors  that  he  had  declined  as  inducements  to  go  else- 
where. He  had  declined  to  go  to  the  Federal  Capital,  and 
Richmond  became  the  Confederate  Capital.  More  recently 
he  had  declined  to  go  to  larger  cities,  and  the  rapid  growth 
of  Richmond  furnished  the  fullest  field  for  his  energies.  He 
had  declined  to  go  to  Lexington,  and  Richmond  College  was 
established. 

Although  an  institution  under  Baptist  auspices,  the  stu- 
dents always  composed  a  large  part  of  his  afternoon 
audiences,  and  all  over  the  South  there  are  Baptist  ministers 
to  testify  their  indebtedness  to  his  preaching,  as  giving  them 
their  highest  ideal  of  the  gospel  ministry. 

The  growth  of  his  congregations  under  these  conditions 
was  so  great  as  to  compel  the  enlargement  of  his  church. 
Its  Gothic  architecture  easily  lent  itself  to  enlargement  by 


Broader  Fields.  263 

With  the  momentum  of  these  services  he  entered  his  new 
church,  which  he  kept  full  and  often  packed  to  overflowing 
for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

He  had  now  entered  upon  a  higher  plane  in  his  preaching. 
While  his  time  suffered  constant  interruption  up  to  the  day 
when  he  was  laid  aside,  he  now  had  no  regular  duties  but 
those  of  his  ministry.  Though  he  could  command  little 
time  for  study  until  others  slept,  his  more  robust  health  and 
his  indomitable  will  enabled  him  to  study  far  into  the  night. 
It  was  not  uncommon  for  the  night  editors  of  the  city  papers 
to  see  his  light  still  burning  as  they  went  home  from  their 
labors  in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning.  Yet  seven  o'clock 
always  found  him  out  of  bed,  ready  for  another  day's  work. 
Not  infrequently,  under  some  special  stress  of  duties,  he 
worked  the  whole  of  Saturday  night,  going  direct  from  his 
study  to  his  morning  bath,  after  which  he  seemed  as  fresh 
as  those  who  had  slept  all  night.  With  all  his  readiness  in 
extempore  speech,  one  thing  he  had  settled ;  he  would  not 
go  into  his  pulpit  unprepared.  The  thinness  which,  in  spite 
of  its  beauty,  had  been  sometimes  felt  in  the  preaching  of  his 
earlier  years,  had  wholly  disappeared.  He  lost  none  of  his 
delicacy  of  touch,  none  of  the  subtle  play  of  his  fancy,  none 
of  the  artistic  finish  of  his  earlier  work;  in  all  these  things 
experience  had  made  him  only  a  more  perfect  artist ;  but  he 
had  gained  in  robustness  of  thought :  in  compactness  of 
argument,  in  fulness  of  scriptural  exposition.  His  illustra- 
tions were  of  wider  range  and  richer  vein.  He  struck  deeper 
chords  of  human  experience,  and  sounded  profounder  depths 
of  divine  truth.  From  the  garnered  stores  of  human  know- 
ledge, from  the  inexhaustible  treasury  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
from  the  fulness  of  his  own  experience,  he  brought  forth 
things  new  and  old. 

The  treatment  was  new,  but  the  truth  was  old.  The  flood- 
tide  of  popularity  never  swept  him  from  his  moorings,  and 
he  despised  the  itch  for  notoriety  that  betrayed  the  minister 
of  God  into  sensationalism.    He  regarded  this  as  the  greatest 


264  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

danger  of  the  American  pulpit,  and  seems  to  have  meditated 
a  treatise  upon  the  subject;  with  regard  to  which  he  wrote 
to  Dr.  Shedd,  and  received  the  following  reply : 

I  am  sorry  that  I  am  unable  to  refer  you  to  any  treatise, 
or  even  any  essay,  upon  the  present  tendencies  of  the  pulpit 
in  the  direction  of  which  you  speak.  I  know  of  nothing. 
Most  of  what  has  been  written  of  late  in  the  reviews  and 
magazines  has  favored,  rather  than  hindered,  latitudina- 
rianism  in  doctrine,  and  superficial  preaching.  The  cur- 
rent literature  in  the  periodicals  is  against  us,  and  one  rea- 
son why  sensational  preachers  get  large  audiences  in  large 
towns  is  the  fact  that  the  periodical  constitutes  nearly  all 
the  reading.  Those  who  read  standard  literature  are  good 
hearers,  and  do  not  join  the  crowd. 

I  am  rejoiced  to  know  that  you  have  taken  the  matter 
into  consideration,  and  hope  that  you  will  give  the  public, 
and  especially  the  ministry,  the  benefit  of  your  knowledge, 
experience  and  observation.  You  will  have  an  almost  en- 
tirely untrodden  field.  Such  a  treatise  will  be  welcomed 
by  a  large  class  of  our  best  men  and  minds,  who  lament 
with  you  the  sensationalism  and  feebleness  in  respect  to 
all  the  higher  qualities  of  preaching,  which  marks  a  certain 
class  of  popular  preachers. 

Some  time  later  he  wrote  an  editorial  for  the  Central 
Presbyterian  ^  on  one  aspect  of  the  subject,  that  of  "Adver- 
tising Texts."  He  closed  by  asking,  "Why  should  the  min- 
ister stop  here?  If  it  is  his  great  object  to  attract  the  crowd, 
why  not  make  himself  as  ridiculous  as  his  theme?  Why  not 
come  into  the  pulpit  with  a  cap  and  bells  on  his  head?  or 
with  a  couple  of  lilies  in  his  right  hand  and  a  sunflower  in 
his  button-hole  ?" 

The  variety  of  theme  and  treatment  that  others  sought 
in  sensational  departures  from  the  word  of  God  he  found  in 
a  faithful  adherence  to  it.  By  presenting  truth  in  its  biblical 
setting,  and  clothing  it  in  its  biblical  imagery,  he  distilled 
the  honey  from  every  flower,  but  preserved  the  different 

'  While  he  had  no  official  connection  with  the  paper  after  1859,  he 
often  contributed  to  its  editorial  columns. 


Broader  Fields.  265 

beauty  and  fragrance  of  each.  The  variety  of  his  preaching 
was  not  the  variety  of  a  peddler's  pack,  but  the  variety  of 
nature;  with  glowing  flowers  and  rich  fruits,  and  sunny 
fields  and  gleaming  waters,  with  now  the  whisper  of  the 
breeze  in  the  tree-tops,  and  now  the  rush  of  the  storm  in  the 
forest,  or  the  beat  of  the  surf  upon  the  shore.  This  was  the 
variety — the  variety  in  unity — the 

"one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones," 

by  which  for  over  half  a  century  in  the  same  city  this  one 
man  held  the  changing  throngs. 

While  his  ministry  drew  increasing  crowds  at  home  his 
reputation  was  growing  abroad.  To  his  good  friend,  Mrs. 
Brown,  Judge  Ould  wrote  of  a  service  at  the  White  Sulphur 
Springs,  then,  as  in  bygone  years,  attracting  to  itself  men  of 
distinction  from  all  parts  of  the  land  * 

I  need  not  say  to  you  how  he  did  the  work ;  how  he  put 
his  materials  together  and  showed  forth  a  structure  radiant 
from  dome  to  foundation  stone ;  but  I  will  say  something 
of  the  effects.  Of  course  all  his  special  friends  were  jubi- 
lant; indeed,  to  them  the  whole  affair  took  the  form  and 
hue  of  a  personal  triumph.  The  most  intelligent  of  the 
audience  were  the  best  pleased,  perhaps  in  the  ratio  of  their 

sense.     Mr.  C ,  an  Episcopalian  of  Washington,  said, 

with  a  glow  on  his  face  that  tokened  his  sincerity,  that  he 
would  give  any  money  for  the  privilege  of  such  preaching 
every  Sabbath.  I  told  him  he  could  get  it  just  in  that  style 
for  nothing  by  coming  to  Richmond.  Mrs.  P ,  of  Balti- 
more, who  is  here  with  a  coach  and  four,  and  a  daughter 
millionaire,  who  expects  to  be  married  some  day  to  some- 
body, now  not  known,  declares  that  Richmond  is  too  small 
for  the  Doctor,  and  that  he  must  and  shall  go  to  Baltimore. 
She  said  so  to  me,  and  I  smiled  incredulously,  not  thinking 
it  proper  to,  contradict  a  coach  and  four.  If  the  daughter 
had  said  the  same,  perhaps  I  would  have  even  stayed  the 
smile.  The  opinions  of  a  millionaire  must  and  shall  be 
respected. 

In  1872,  Dr.  Hoge  made  a  visit  to  Princeton  that  occa- 
sioned his  friends  some  anxiety,  as  it  was  his  first  public 


266  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

appearance  in  the  North  since  the  war.  They  never  troubled 
themselves  in  that  way  again.  A  friend  wrote  of  the  ser- 
vices : 

I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  a  quiet,  staid  community  so 
moved  by  a  single  Sabbath's  services.  They  were  the  first, 
almost  the  only  subject  of  remark  by  all  whom  I  met.  It 
was  a  spontaneous  outburst  of  something  better  than  ad- 
miration— of  great  joy.  The  morning  service  in  the  Chapel 
was  deeply  impressive,  faithful  and  tender;  so  good  that 
Dr.  McCosh  will  not  admit  it  to  be  inferior  to  the  second. 
The  students  seemed  to  me  very  solemn.  I  saw  many  wipe 
their  eyes ;  one  said  to  me,  "I  never  heard  such  preaching 
in  this  chapel  before."  And  yet  the  sermon  at  night  ex- 
celled in  power.  It  was  one  of  the  most  logical  and  lucid 
arguments  I  ever  listened  to,  the  ablest  refutation  of  error, 
and  most  convincing  vindication  of  glorious  truth ;  all 
clothed  with  such  exquisite  grace  and  beauty  as  to  make 
it  a  grand  poem. 

The  congregation  caught  the  preacher's  enthusiasm,  or 
rather  his  enthusiasm  caught  the  congregation,  and  car- 
ried them  along  with  him.  Of  the  incomparable  reading  of 
scriptures,  rendering  of  hymns,  and  the  sweet  inspiring 
prayers  I  need  not  write. 

Should  we  not  hope  and  pray  for  great  blessing  from  this 
preaching  of  the  word  ?  Then  will  come  high  reward,  the 
only  reward  for  the  work  of  faith  and  labor  of  love. 

Of  the  same  visit  Dr.  Miller  wrote  to  Mrs.  Brown : 

I  went  early  and  watched  the  gathering  in  with  a  degree 
of  nervous  excitement  that  surprised  me.  I  was  very 
anxious  for  a  good  impression  on  many  accounts,  and  I 
was  greatly  gratified  to  observe  the  deep  attention  and 
emotion  of  the  whole  audience,  young  and  old.  Again  and 
again  during  the  sermon  there  was  a  painful  stillness, 
marking  both  the  power  of  the  preacher  and  the  intense 
feeling  of  his  hearers. 

At  night  the  services  were  in  the  First  Church.  Both  of 
its  large  galleries  were  full,  as  was  also  the  floor,  with  an 
eager  and  most  attentive  congregation.  This,  to  my  mind^ 
was  the  best  of  two  sermons.  The  morning  sermon  sat- 
isfied me  because  I  saw  how  great  an  impression  it  made;. 


Broader  Fields.  267 

but  I  said  to  a  professor  at  the  door  of  the  chapel,  who  was 
much  pleased  with  it,  "Dr.  Hoge  can  do  better  than  that." 
At  night,  meeting  this  same  gentleman  in  the  aisle,  I  whis- 
pered to  him,  "You  know  I  promised  you  Dr.  Hoge  could 
do  better,  and  you  see  he  has  done  it."  "My !"  he  replied, 
"I  never  heard  such  preaching  in  my  life ;"  a  speech  he  has 
repeated  to  me  since,  when  in  cool  blood  he  could  look  back 
upon  it ;  but  I  have  heard  but  one  impression  from  every- 
body, and  that  of  the  warmest  admiration.  The  students 
were  delighted,  our  few  Southern  boys  being  proud  as  well' 
as  pleased. 

It  may  be,  too,  that  better  service  has  been  done,  a  hun- 
dred-fold, than  that  of  merely  gaining  for  himself  the  ad- 
miration of  the  audience.  Dr.  Hart  told  Mrs.  Miller  that 
there  was  a  decided  religious  seriousness  in  the  college  sub- 
sequent to  this  visit.  Whether  those  sermons  produced  it 
or  only  developed  it,  he  could  not  say.  In  either  case.  Dr. 
Hoge  and  his  friends  should  feel  grateful  that  God  should 
so  honor  and  bless  him.  All  human  eulogy  sinks  into  no- 
thingness before  this. 

One  word  more.  As  to  social  attention  nothing  was- 
omitted.  All  the  professors  called — some  after  he  had 
gone,  and  every  visit  was  marked  with  the  utmost  cordi- 
ality and  respect.  There  was  not  a  trace  of  any  unpleasant 
memories,  nor  the  slightest  approach  to  a  recognition  of 
any  differences,  social,  sectional,  ecclesiastical  or  political. 
I  doubt  whether  Dr.  John  Hall,  who  had  no  Confederate 
history  or  Southern-churchism,  ever  received  any  greater 
or  more  cordial  attention  here  than  Dr.  Hoge. 

From  the  venerable  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  Dr.  Hoge  re- 
ceived a  kindly  note  of  regret  that  illness  prevented  his 
hearing  him  and  calling  upon  him.  Dr.  Hoge  called  to  see 
him,  and  always  cherished  the  memory  of  the  pathetic  tender- 
ness with  which  the  aged  saint  received  his  visit,  recalling 
sacred  memories  of  the  elder  Dr.  Hoge,  of  whom  Dr.  Hodge 
said,  "Your  grandfather  was  the  holiest  man  I  ever  met,  and 
I  esteem  it  one  of  the  greatest  privileges  of  my  life  to  have- 
known  him." 

The  following  July  he  spoke  in  Philadelphia — on  just 


268  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

what  occasion  does  not  appear.     He  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
answer  to  congratulations  upon  the  speech  as  printed : 

I  could  have  had  more  of  this  recompense  had  you  been 
present  that  night,  and  seen  for  yourself  the  cold  inquisi- 
torial aspect  of  the  audience  as  I  commenced  my  address, 
giving  expression  as  I  did  to  the  feeling  of  loneliness  that 
oppressed  me  in  that  crowd,  and  then  the  gradual  mani- 
festations of  sympathy,  and  at  last  the  enthusiastic  greet- 
ings which  came  up,  like  the  waves  on  a  beach,  toward  the 
close. 

A  more  distinguished  opportunity  presented  itself  the  fol- 
lowing October,  when  the  World's  Evangelical  Alliance  held 
its  sessions  in  New  York,  and  outstanding  men  from  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic  gathered  together  to  discuss  the  things 
•of  the  kingdom.  Dr.  Hoge  was  invited  to  speak  on  the 
''Mission  Field  of  the  South."  His  address  was  a  noble 
vindication  of  Southern  civilization,  which  commanded  the 
respect,  if  it  did  not  wholly  carry  the  convictions,  of  his 
audience,  while  the  broad  Christian  philanthropy  of  his 
appeal  for  the  cooperation  and  sympathy  of  the  Christian 
world  in  the  vast  task  of  rebuilding  out  of  the  ruins  of  the 
old  a  new  civilization  in  righteousness  and  the  fear  of  God, 
carried  the  hearts  as  well  as  the  consciences  of  his  hearers. 
This  address  established  his  fame  upon  a  firm  basis  through- 
out the  Christian  world,  while  it  received  the  warm  thanks 
of  his  own  Southern  people ;  but  even  now  he  preferred  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the  rewards  it  brought.  He 
wrote : 

MoRRisTOWN,  October  i6,  1873. 

My  Dear  Sister  :  The  kindness  of  your  favor  of  yester- 
day and  its  superabundant  appreciation  of  my  humble 
contribution  to  the  treasures  of  the  Alliance,  profoundly 
moves  me,  and  awakens  more  than  gratitude. 

Sunday  was  best  of  all  the  seven.  It  was  an  unusual 
scene  in  a  stately  New  York  church,  when  at  the  close  of 
my  sermon,  Dr.  Cause  rose  and  thanked  me  before  the  con- 
gregation for  a  discourse,  which,  he  said,  God  had  sent  me 


Broader  Fields.  269 

there  to  deliver,  containing  the  very  truth  he  most  wished 
his  people  to  hear  on  that  very  day,  as  the  next  Sabbath  was 
their  communion  Sabbath.  I  responded  briefly  to  this,  and 
made  a  short  address,  tender  and  encouraging  as  I  could 
express  it,  to  those  who  might  be  thinking  of  mak- 
ing a  public  profession  of  their  faith  on  the  coming 
Sunday. 

I  could  not  anticipate  as  good  a  time  again,  at  night,  in 
Dr.  Deems'  "Church  of  the  Strangers." 

I  had  a  better  time.  Knowing  that  Steinway  Hall,  the 
Academy  of  Music,  Cooper  Institute,  Tammany  Hall,  as 
well  as  all  the  churches,  would  be  thronged  at  night,  I  an- 
ticipated a  thin  audience. 

I  found  the  church  packed,  aisles  and  all.  I  preached  a 
sermon  I  had  arranged  that  afternoon  (having  changed 
my  theme  after  dinner)  without  any  notes,  and  I  had  what 
the  old  divines  used  to  call  "liberty"  of  feeling,  thought  and 
expression,  which  greatly  helped  me  in  its  delivery. 

I  have  been  trying  to  find  time  since  I  came  to  Morris- 
town  to  write  it  out,  and  so  preserve  it,  but  have  not  been 
able. 

In  1875,  when  some  English  gentlemen,  under  the  lead 
of  Mr.  Beresford-Hope,  presented  to  the  State  of  Virginia 
the  Foley  statue  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  the  committee  of  the 
Virginia  Legislature  charged  with  the  arrangements  for  its 
reception  unanimously  fixed  upon  Dr.  Hoge  to  deliver  the 
oration  at  its  inauguration. 

Such  an  occasion  does  not  come  to  many  men ;  nor  to  any 
man  more  than  once.  The  people  of  Virginia  and  of  the 
South  were  there.  They  gazed  upon  the  tattered  remnants 
of  the  old  Stonewall  Brigade.  They  looked  upon  the  widow 
and  child  of  their  dead  chieftain.  They  came  to  honor  his 
memory  and  to  commemorate  the  Lost  Cause.  It  was  the 
first  of  such  occasions — the  "inauguration  of  a  new  Pan- 
theon." In  no  other  land  could  such  a  celebration  have  taken 
place,  certainly  not  so  soon  after  such  a  war.  In  no  other 
land  could  such  a  gift  from  citizens  of  a  foreign  nation  have 
been  received.     The  eyes  of  the  whole  country  were  fixed 


270  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

upon  Richmond;  and  across  the  seas  the  occasion  was 
watched  with  an  interest  scarcely  less  eager.  A  key-note 
was  to  be  struck.    Would  it  ring  false  or  true  ? 

In  the  oration  of  that  day  there  was  no  note  of  subser- 
viency. It  was  boldly  stated  that  Southern  people  would 
never  "add  degradation  to  defeat  and  hypocrisy  to  subjuga- 
tion by  professing  a  love  for  the  Union  which  denies  to  one 
of  their  States  a  single  right  accorded  to  Massachusetts  or 
New  York;"  for  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  and  Florida 
were  still  coerced  by  Federal  bayonets ;  but  there  was,  at  the 
same  time,  the  broadest  spirit  of  patriotism : 

Why  may  there  not  be  a  comprehension  of  what  is 
truly  politic,  and  what  is  grandly  right,  slumbering  in  the 
hearts  of  our  American  people — a  people  at  once  so  practi- 
cal and  emotional,  so  capable  of  great  enterprise  and 
greater  magnanimity — a  patriotism  which  is  yet  to  awake 
and  announce  itself  in  a  repudiation  of  all  unconstitutional 
invasion  of  the  liberties  of  the  citizens  of  any  portion  of 
this  broad  Union?  When  we  remember  the  awful  strain 
to  which  the  principles  of  other  constitutional  govern- 
ments have  been  subjected  in  the  excitement  of  revolution- 
ary epochs,  and  how,  when  seemingly  submerged  by  the 
tempest,  they  have  risen  again  and  reasserted  themselves 
in  their  original  integrity,  why  should  we  despair  of  seeing 
the  ark  of  our  liberties  again  resting  on  the  summit  of  the 
mount,  and  hallowed  by  the  benediction  of  him  who  said, 
""Behold,  I  do  set  my  bow  in  the  cloud !" 

And  now,  standing  before  this  statue,  and,  as  in  the 
living  presence  of  the  man  it  represents,  cordially  endors- 
ing, as  I  do,  the  principles  of  the  political  school  in  which 
he  was  trained,  and  in  defence  of  which  he  died,  and  un- 
able yet  even  to  think  of  our  dead  Confederacy  without 
memories  unutterably  tender,  I  speak  not  for  myself,  but 
for  the  South,  when  I  say  it  is  our  interest,  our  duty  and 
determination,  to  maintain  the  Union,  and  to  make  every 
possible  contribution  to  its  prosperity  and  glory,  if  all  the 
States  which  compose  it  will  unite  in  making  it  such  a 
Union  as  our  fathers  framed,  and  in  enthroning  above  it, 
not  a  Caesar,  but  the  Constitution  in  its  old  supremacy. 


Broader  Fields.  271 

But  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  occasion — one  that 
was  emphasized  by  the  selection  of  the  orator  not  from  the 
ranks  of  those  engaged  in  poHtical  strife,  but  from  the  min- 
istry of  the  gospel  of  peace — was  that  the  man  whose  fame 
was  celebrated  rose  above  party,  above  section,  above  na- 
tionality, and  commanded  the  homage  of  the  world.  Dr. 
Hoge  was  annoyed  at  an  editorial  in  the  London  Times, 
attaching  political  significance  to  the  occasion,  and  wrote  to 
Mr.  Beresford-Hope  a  letter  of  explanation :  ^ 

Richmond,  Nove7nber  15,  1875. 
A.J.B.  Beresford-Hope,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir:  I  saw  in  the  New  York  Tribune  this 
morning  an  extract  from  an  editorial  in  the  London  Thnes 
which  singularly  misrepresents  the  design  and  spirit  of  our 
demonstration  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Jackson  statue. 

The  celebration  here  had  no  political  significance  what- 
ever. It  has  not  had  the  slightest  political  efifect.  It  was 
not  intended  to  excite  animosities  between  the  North  and 
the  South,  nor  to  stir  up  rancor  between  Great  Britain  and 
America. 

So  far  from  it,  I  announced  it  to  be  the  purpose  of  the 
Southern  people  to  maintain  the  government  as  it  was  now 
constituted,  though  we  should  profess  no  love  for  a  Union 
in  which  the  Southern  States  are  denied  privileges  accorded 
to  the  Northern. 

Moreover,  I  said,  "We  accept  this  statue  as  a  pledge  of 
the  peaceful  relations  zvhich  zve  trust  zvill  ever  exist  he- 
tzveen  Great  Britain  and  the  confederated  empire  formed 
by  the  United  States  of  America." 

We  did  not  regard  the  statue  in  the  light  of  a  gift  from 
England,  but  as  the  kind  expression  of  the  sympathy  which 
English  gendemen  felt  for  our  people,  and  of  their  admi- 
ration for  the  character  of  Stonewall  Jackson. 

The  fact  is  this :  the  arrival  of  that  statue  gave  an  occa- 
sion to  the  Southern  people  for  showing  their  passionate 
love  for  the  memory  of  Jackson.    It  was  their  first  oppor- 

'  He  wrote  a  similar  letter  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Lawley,  who,  from  his 
connection  with  the  London  Telegraph,  was  in  a  position  to  correct 
the  mistake. 


272  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

tunity  to  render  to  his  memory  the  homage  they  had  cher- 
ished in  their  hearts.  It  dehghted  them  to  do  this  pubhcly, 
and  they  did  it  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  They  did  not 
come  together  in  thronging  thousands  to  make  a  political 
demonstration.  They  were  drawn  together  by  a  stronger 
and  nobler  attraction.  In  this  light  most  sensible  periodi- 
cals in  the  North  regard  our  memorial  day.  The  New 
York  Tribune  so  views  it,  and  the  New  York  World  of  the 
loth  instant  gives  a  true  statement  of  the  spirit  of  the  ad- 
dresses delivered  by  Governor  Kemper  and  myself. 
Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Moses  D.  Hoge. 

To  which  he  received  the  following  reply : 

AsHBORo  House,  Connaught  Place, 

London,  November  27,  1875. 

My  Dear  Sir:  The  kindness  of  your  letter  enhances 
the  pleasure  with  which  I  have  read  your  eloquent  oration, 
which  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of  doing,  thanks  both  to 
yourself  and  to  Governor  Kemper. 

It  was  a  grand  occasion,  and  you  rose  to  it.  I  need  not 
tell  you  how  we  sympathized  in  England  with  your  hero. 
The  completion  and  gift  of  the  statue  was  a  joy  to  right- 
minded  people,  and  the  reception  which  your  noble  State  ac- 
corded to  it  thrilled  sympathetically  through  English  hearts. 

My  absence,  which  was  inevitable,  was  a  great  disap- 
pointment to  me.  It  is  very  kind  of  you  to  say  that  it  was 
felt  in  Richmond.    Believe  me,  my  dear  sir. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

A.  J.  B.  Beresford-Hope. 

Before  referring,  as  he  did,  to  the  opinion  of  the  "English 
Earl,  honored  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,"  he  wrote  to 
him,  recalling  the  remark  made  to  him  in  London,  and  asking 
his  permission  to  quote  it.  Lord  Shaftesbury  answered  in 
the  following  cordial  note : 

Castle  Wemyss,  Wemyss  Bay,  N.  B.,  September  2,  1S75. 
Dear  Dr.  Hoge  :  It  is  a  very  great  honor  to  me  that  my 
opinion  should  be  thought  worthy  of  being  quoted  in  a 
testimonial  to  General  Stonewall  Jackson. 


Broader  Fields. 


273 


So  far  from  recalling  what  I  said  to  you  in  London,  I 
emphatically  repeat  it.  America  may  well  rejoice  in  having 
produced,  among  many  others,  three  such  eminent  men  as 
Washington,  Lee,  and  Stonewall  Jackson.  Were  they  alive 
now  they  would  be  above  all  criticism  as  public  men; 
slavery,  God  be  praised,  having  passed  away,  the  only 
cloud  that  obscured  their  bright  intelligence  and  virtue. 

You  will  not,  I  hope,  forget  to  call  on  me,  should  I  be 
alive,  when  you  revisit  England. 

May  God  be  with  you,  through  time  and  in  eternity. 
Yours  truly,  Shaftesbury. 

That  the  Avhole  occasion  tended  to  promote  good  feeling 
between  the  North  and  South  is  illustrated  by  this  incident, 
of  which  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  to  a  friend : 

My  last  letter  about  the  Jackson  Memorial  Address  came 
a  few  days  ago  from  Professor  Frink,  of  Hamilton  College, 
New  York,  who  says  he  has  selected  some  portions  of  it 
which  especially  pleased  him  for  exercises  in  <ieclamation  in 
his  rhetorical  class — New  York  boys  reciting  eulogies  on  a 
Confederate  General ! 

And  if  there  had  been  no  other  fruit  of  the  day,  the  happi- 
ness it  gave  to  the  gentle  heart  of  one  true  woman  who  had 
suffered  so  much  would  have  been  to  Dr.  Hoge  reward 
enough.    Mrs.  Jackson  wrote : 

I  thank  you  kindly  for  the  good  supply  of  the  oration 
received  by  express.  I  have  read  it  carefully  twice,  and 
with  new  pleasure  each  time.  You  have  received  so  many 
graceful  and  beautiful  commendations  on  its  merits  that 
I  feel  a  hesitancy  in  offering  my  meed  of  praise,  and  yet 
there  can  be  no  heart,  whose  chords  have  been  so  touched, 
or  that  has  vibrated  more  in  unison  with  every  word  so 
truly  and  beautifully  spoken  by  you,  as  my  own. 

I  wish  you  could  know  how  much  I  value  your  true  ap- 
preciation of  the  exalted  Christian  character  of  my  sainted 
husband. 

In  these  gloomy  days  that  have  followed  upon  my  return 
home,  I  have  lived  over  my  delightful  visit  to  Richmond, 
and  am  more  and  more  impressed  with  the  conviction  that 


274  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

nothing  was  wanting  to  complete  its  perfect  enjoyment. 
Of  course,  I  can  never  have  such  another  epoch  in  my  life, 
but  there  was  enough  in  this  to  shed  brightness  and  grati- 
tude over  all  the  future,  and  to  make  me  a  better  and  hap- 
pier woman  to  the  end  of  my  days. 

Wishing  you  and  yours  every  blessing,  I  am, 
Most  truly  your  friend, 

M.  A.  Jackson. 

The  oration  is  given  in  full  in  the  Appendix,^  but  General 
D.  H.  Hill's  account  of  it  gives  some  touches  that  are  not 
found  in  the  printed  speech : 

Dr.  Hoge  made  the  mighty  efifort  of  his  life.  He  was 
inspired  by  the  grandeur  of  the  occasion,  by  the  vastness 
of  the  audience,  and  above  all  by  the  greatness  of  the  sub- 
ject of  his  eulogy.  He  impressed  all  who  heard  him  that  he 
is  the  most  eloquent  orator  on  this  continent.  Carried 
away  by  the  enthusiasm  caused  by  the  mighty  surround- 
ings, Dr.  Hoge  made  his  most  eloquent  utterances  extem- 
poraneously, and  they  did  not  appear  in  his  published 
speech.  He  paid  a  most  glowing  tribute  to  General  Joseph 
E.  Johnston,  "the  greatest  of  living  soldiers,  whose  singu- 
lar fortune  it  was  always  to  encounter  vastly  superior 
forces,  and  therefore  to  be  always  retreating,  but  his  re- 
treats gave  no  confidence  to  his  enemies  and  demoralized 
not  one  whit  his  own  devoted  followers."  The  cheer  that 
greeted  this  outburst  of  Dr.  Hoge  was  as  hearty  and  spon- 
taneous from  the  tens  of  thousands  of  listening  soldiers  as 
from  the  eloquent  orator  himself.  General  Johnston  was 
much  affected  by  this  honest  tribute  of  love,  confidence  and 
admiration,  and  came  forward  and  bowed  his  acknowledg- 
ments. 

Dr.  Hoge,  in  closing  his  address,  alluded  to  the  prophecy 
of  Jackson,  that  the  time  would  come  when  his  men  would 
be  proud  that  they  belonged  to  the  Stonewall  Brigade. 
Rising  to  his  full  height,  the  orator  exclaimed  in  his  clear, 
ringing  tones,  "Men  of  the  Stonewall  Brigade,  that  time 
has  come.  Behold  the  image  of  your  illustrious  com- 
mander!"    The  veil  was  raised,  the  life-like  statue  stood 

'  Page  425. 


Broader  Fields.  275 

revealed,  recalling  so  vividly  the  loved  form  of  the  illustri- 
ous soldier  that  tears  rained  down  ten  thousand  faces. 
Men  of  sternest  natures,  cast  iron  men,  were  weeping  like 
children. 

Earlier  in  the  same  year  an  honor  had  been  bestowed  upon 
Dr.  Hoge  that  brought  him  into  a  line  of  work  for  which  he 
had  little  relish,  but  in  which  he  was  to  be  eminently  useful. 
His  presbytery  having  sent  him  to  the  General  Assembly — as 
usual  against  his  protest — he  was  unanimously  and  without 
opposition  elected  Moderator.  His  dignity  and  grace  in 
conducting  public  exercises,  his  tact  and  skill  in  giving  things 
a  happy  turn,  his  deference  and  courtesy  to  his  brethren,  and 
his  habitual  promptness  in  decision  made  him  an  ideal  pre- 
siding officer.  Perhaps  in  no  part  of  his  duties  did  his 
peculiar  gifts  show  to  more  advantage  than  in  the  reception 
of  delegates  from  other  bodies.  Their  addresses  were,  of 
course,  prepared;  in  his  extempore  replies  he  would,  in 
a  brief,  sparkling  little  speech,  take  up  every  point  in  the 
address  to  which  he  had  just  listened,  giving  to  every 
thought  some  new  and  happy  turn. 

To  a  dear  friend,  who  had  sent  him  a  letter  of  congratula- 
tion, he  replies : 

St.  Louis,  May  31,  1875. 
My  Dear  Friend:  I  have  dated  my  letter  May  31st,  but 
it  is  one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June  ist,  and  I  have  just 
returned  to  my  room  after  the  adjournment  of  the  As- 
sembly and  the  long  leave-taking  of  friends  who  detained 


me. 


How  can  I  better  show  my  appreciation  of  your  kind 
congratulation  and  good  wishes  than  by  sending  you  this 
line  at  this  most  weary  hour  ? 

It  is  an  honor  to  be  Moderator  of  an  Assembly  like  ours, 
but  I  need  not  tell  you  how  irksome  it  is  to  a  restless  person 
hke  myself,  who  cannot  sit  still  with  comfort  half  an  hour, 
even  in  a  parlor,  but  go  walking  about  like  an  evil  spirit 
seeking  rest  and  finding  none ;  and  then  the  tax  on  one's 
attention  for  so  many  days  together,  keeping  the  run  of 
business  and  having  to  decide  in  an  instant  so  many  points 


276  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

of  order,  adds  greatly  to  the  bore  of  the  position ;  but  it  is 
all  over  now,  and  I  can  indulge  in  a  little  thankfulness  that, 
so  far  from  having  an  appeal  taken  from  any  of  my  de- 
cisions, not  one  of  them  was  even  questioned.  We  had 
many  difficult  and  delicate  questions  to  discuss,  but  the 
harmony  was  unbroken,  and  when  we  closed  our  sessions 
to-night  with  the  hymn,  "Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds,"  we 
felt  the  beatitude  in  our  hearts  which  we  sang  with  our 
lips. 

It  was  my  hope  that  the  Cleveland  Assembly  would  put 
it  in  our  power  to  establish  "fraternal  relations"  by  one 
frank  and  manly  expression  of  regret  for  the  injurious  im- 
putations heaped  on  us  for  so  many  years.  It  was  informed 
that  if  it  would  but  say  they  were  "disapproved  and  dis- 
avowed," we  would  gladly  meet  them  on  that  ground ;  but 
the  utterance  did  not  come  before  our  adjournment. 

I  leave  for  Richmond  to-morrow. 

Affectionately  your  friend,  M.  D.  H. 

The  question  of  "fraternal  relations"  to  which  he  alludes 
was  one  much  on  his  heart.  Properly  speaking,  fraternal 
relations  already  existed,  in  the  mutual  recognition  given  to 
the  order  and  discipline  of  each  body  by  the  other,  and  in 
the  free  interchange  of  pulpits,  and  other  forms  of  com- 
munion ;  but  the  term  was  used  to  denote  official  corres- 
pondence between  the  Assemblies  by  the  formal  interchange 
of  delegates. 

According  to  immemorial  Presbyterian  usage.  Dr.  Hoge 
was  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Bills  and  Overtures — 
which  prepares  the  most  important  business  for  the  house 
— in  the  following  Assembly,  which  met  in  Savannah.  It 
was  his  laudable  ambition  to  signalize  his  term  of  office  by 
the  accomplishment  of  that  which  was  so  near  his  heart, 
and  which  he  felt  would  mean  much  for  the  glory  of  Christ. 
No  one  was  more  staunch  in  maintaining  the  dignity  and 
honor  of  his  church.  Reunion  he  did  not  regard  with  favor 
for  many  practical  reasons;  but  he  felt  that  a  Christian 
Church,  like  a  Christian  man,  should  in  all  things,  and  above 
all  things,  show  the  spirit  of  Christ.     Several  years  before. 


Broader  Fields.  277 

in  correspondence  with  Dr.  Field,  he  had  so  expressed  him- 
self as  to  elicit  this  reply : 

Dear  Dr.  Hoge:  Your  very  kind  letter  reached  me  at 
our  country  place,  and  was  very  grateful  to  my  heart.  I 
find  that  Christian  love  knows  no  State  lines,  no  geo- 
graphical boundaries,  and  that  when  good  men  come 
together,  they  are  drawn  to  each  other  in  spite  of  all  preju- 
dices. I  am  receiving  a  good  many  letters  from  the  South, 
but  as  they  are  private,  I  cannot  make  any  use  of  them.  I 
am  beginning  to  feel  that  there  are  more  obstacles  to  re- 
union than  we  supposed.  Perhaps  time  and  patience  will 
remove  them.  If  not,  we  can  at  least  soften  irritations, 
and  so  do  something  to  heal  this  grievous  wound  that  mars 
the  body  of  Christ  as  well  as  the  State. 

In  this  spirit  he  sought  to  meet  the  question  in  the  Savan- 
nah Assembly.  The  time  seemed  propitious,  for  his,  and  the 
South's,  warm  friend.  Dr.  Van  Dyke,  was  in  the  Moderator's 
chair  of  the  other  Assembly.  In  answer  to  an  overture 
from  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Louis,  asking  the  Assembly  to 
take  some  further  action  in  regard  to  fraternal  relations  with 
the  Northern  Assembly,  the  following  resolution  was 
adopted,  upon  the  recommendation  of  his  committee,  and 
telegraphed  to  the  Assembly  in  Brooklyn,  with  the  assurance 
that  they  were  "ready  most  cordially  to  enter  on  fraternal 
relations  on  any  terms  honorable  to  both  parties,"  indicating 
what  those  terms  were,  in  their  judgment,  by  the  resolution: 

Resolved,  That  the  action  of  the  Baltimore  conference, 
approved  by  the  Assembly  at  St.  Louis,  explains  with  suffi- 
cient clearness  the  position  of  our  Church. 

But,  inasmuch  as  it  is  represented  by  the  overture  that 
misapprehension  exists  in  the  minds  of  some  of  our  people 
as  to  the  spirit  of  this  action,  in  order  to  show  our  dispo- 
sition to  remove  on  our  part  real  or  seeming  hindrances  to 
friendly  feeling,  the  Assembly  explicitly  declares  that, 
while  condemning  certain  acts  and  deliverances  of  the 
Northern  General  Assembly,  no  acts  or  deliverances  of 
the  Southern  General  Assemblies  are  to  be  construed  or 


278  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

admitted  as  impugning  in  any  way  the  Christian  character 
of  the  Northern  General  Assembly,  or  of  the  historical 
bodies  of  which  it  is  the  successor. 

The  intention  of  the  resolution  was  to  make  it  easier  for 
the  Northern  Assembly  to  withdraw  offensive  imputations 
upon  the  character  of  the  Southern  Assembly  by  disclaiming 
any  reflection  upon  the  Christian  character  of  the  Northern 
Assembly.  Unfortunately  the  Brooklyn  Assembly  contented 
itself  with  repeating  the  action  of  the  Southern  Assembly. 
This  was,  of  course,  unsatisfactory.  At  a  later  time  the 
charges  of  "heresy,  schism  and  blasphemy"  were  formally 
withdrawn.  If  those  charges  had  been  made,  as  thus  ad- 
mitted, it  was  hardly  in  order  to  disclaim  reflections  upon  the 
Christian  character  of  those  against  whom  they  were  made. 
The  charges  needed  to  be  disavowed. 

In  the  Chicago  Assembly  (1877)  Dr.  Van  Dyke  sought 
to  carry  the  Assembly  farther,  and  there  was  a  dramatic 
scene  when  he  asked  the  Assembly  to  invite  the  venerable 
Dr.  Plumer  to  address  the  Assembly.  A  Chicago  paper  ^ 
thus  describes  it : 

All  eyes  were  turned  toward  a  cynosure  under  the  gallery 
near  the  main  entrance ;  a  little  gentle  clapping  of  hands  in 
that  direction  disseminated  no  infection  beyond  the  narrow 
immediate  circle. 

Slowly  the  group  separated,  and  through  the  friendly 
breach  thus  formed  strolled  a  majestic  figure. 

As  the  grand  vision  dawned  upon  the  upturned  faces  of 
the  Assembly,  resistance  to  its  charms  was  impossible ; 
generous  impulse  overcame  the  heat  of  prejudice,  and 
courtesy  paid  voluntary  tribute  to  the  highest  type  of  man- 
liness. 

The  applause  rose  and  swelled  and  waned  again,  then 
waxed  higher  and  more  fervent  as  the  royal  form  went  on 
down  the  aisle,  and  as  the  gallery  caught  the  first  glimpse 
of  his  advancing  figure,  ladies  and  gentlemen  rose  en  masse 
and  cheered  and  cheered  again,  while  the  pent-up  emotion 

^  Preserved  among  Dr.  Hoge's  papers. 


Broader  Fields.  279 

of  the  scene  found  vent  here  and  there  in  unchecked 
tears. 

On  coming  forward,  the  Moderator  requested  him  to 
take  a  position  on  the  platform,  but  he  poHtely  declined, 
addressing  the  Moderator  and  Assembly  thus : 

No,  sir ;  sound  ascends,  not  descends.  I  shall  be  heard. 
I  wish  to  say.  first  of  all,  ivhy  I  am  here  in  Chicago.  I  am 
here  entirely  on  social  accounts,  and  would  have  been  here 
if  this  Assembly  had  met  in  San  Francisco.  I  am  not  here 
to  do  anything  touching  this  business,  or  any  other  busi- 
ness, except  to  preach  Christ's  gospel  and  see  some  of  my 
old  friends  before  I  go  hence. 

The  second  remark  I  wish  to  make  is,  sir,  that  I  fully  and 
cordially  estimate  the  embarrassing  conditions  in  which  I 
am  placed. 

If  I  say  anything,  I  say  it  solely  for  myself  and  on  my 
own  account.  I  am  not  deputed  here  by  anybody,  or  by 
letter  or  otherwise. 

And,  thirdly,  I  wish  to  say  that  in  my  heart  I  glory  in 
the  truth  conveyed  to  me  in  his  last  letter  by  one  of  my  old 
teachers  now  in  heaven.  It  was  this  :  "I  would  not  give  one 
hour  of  brotherly  love  for  a  whole  eternity  of  contention" 
[applause] .  That  is  my  sentiment.  God  in  his  mercy  grant 
that  we  may  all  reach  that  conclusion,  "One  hour  of  broth- 
erly love  is  worth  a  whole  eternity  of  strife  and  bitterness." 

Now,  sir,  God  in  his  providence — a  providence  that  no 
man  on  earth  claims  to  understand — has  raised  up  Presby- 
terian churches  North  and  South.  The  Southern  Church 
covers  a  vast  area  of  territory,  and  has  great  interests  of 
immortal  souls — four  millions  of  people  who  are  not  dying 
out.  It  was  said  the  colored  race  would  die  out.  It  will 
not  die  out. 

The  last  census  shows  an  increase,  including  the  decade 
during  the  war,  of  ten  per  cent.  It  is  going  to  live.  We 
have  great  interests  there.  We  need  help.  The  Southern 
Church,  through  its  Assembly,  has  invited  all  the  world  to 
come  and  work  in  the  field  and  do  good.  Can  we  not  do 
something  that  will  profit  these  people?  Sir,  if  getting  on 
my  knees,  if  lying  on  this  floor  and  allowing  all  men  to 
trample  on  my  body  would  be  the  means  of  saving  the  soul 
of  one  poor  black  man  or  black  woman,  where  any  other 
course  would  jeopardize  the  interests  of  that  soul,  I  would 


28o  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

lie  down  on  this  floor  [applause].  I  ask  the  brethren  to 
think  this  matter  carefully  over. 

You  say  you  can  do  something.  You  have  done  some- 
thing. God  be  praised  for  what  you  have  done ;  but  can 
you  not  do  more  ?  Suppose  you  were  to  treat  the  Southern 
Church  as  three  honored  brethren  have  urged — one  in  Bal- 
timore, one  in  Philadelphia,  and  one  in  New  York — that 
you  should  treat  it  the  same  as  you  treated  the  Waldenses : 
give  them  funds,  give  them  means,  and  ask  them  to  employ 
these  means  in  building  up  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  for 
every  dollar  they  expended  there  would  be  good  results — 
blessed  results. 

We  honor  your  missionaries  there.  We  love  them.  Dr. 
Mattoon  was  the  companion  of  my  own  nephew,  who  bore 
my  own  name,  in  the  mission  to  Siam.  He  is  my  friend. 
Books  that  I  have  written  are  class-books  in  that  institu- 
tion.   Can  you  not  help  us  in  this  thing  ? 

Suppose,  brethren,  by  the  grace  of  God,  you  were  en- 
abled to  say  what  will  at  once  forever  silence  all  contests 
and  bitterness — can  you  not  say  it  ?  I  would  give  anything 
if  you  could;  and  yet  you  must  judge  for  yourselves.  I 
know  not  what  the  vote  of  this  house  shall  be,  but  one 
thing  is  certain,  Jesus  Christ  will  this  day  be  greatly  hon- 
ored or  dishonored  by  this  body ;  and  this  body  must  judge 
whether  its  action  is  to  honor  or  dishonor  the  Saviour,  and 
not  I. 

Another  thing  I  wish  to  say  is,  that  this  body  will  can- 
didly, I  have  no  doubt,  to-day  vote  as  it  has  hitherto  done — 
candidly  vote  what  it  wishes  to  say.  It  will  be  understood ; 
it  will  be  settled.  I  would  love  to  see  these  hindrances  re- 
moved in  my  time ;  but  there  will  be  a  good  many  things 
done  after  my  head  goes  down  to  the  grave,  and  if  God 
denies  me  that  privilege,  be  it  so. 

There  is  not  a  man  in  the  Southern  country  who  does  not 
desire  fraternal  relations  in  terms  both  equal  and  honorable 
[applause].  There  is  not  a  man  in  the  Southern  country 
who  wishes  this  body  to  humble  itself  or  abase  itself  before 
anybody.  But  this  is  true :  if  I  have  stated,  Mr.  Moderator, 
that  you  are  not  a  gentleman,  it  is  due  to  me,  it  is  more  due 
to  me  than  it  is  to  you,  that  I  should  say,  'T  ought  not  to 
have  used  those  words"  [applause] . 

Now,  sir,  I  heard  a  conversation  day  before  yesterday 


Broader  Fields.  281 

about  memories.  Some  one  said  that  a  man  had  an  excel- 
lent memory,  that  he  never  forgot  anything.  I  had  read 
of  a  better  memory  than  that — it  was  the  memory  of  Lord 
Archbishop  Cranmer,  of  whom  it  is  said  he  never  forgot 
anything  but  injuries  [applause]. 

Oh !  what  a  memory  that  must  be,  to  cherish  everything 
that  is  endearing,  and  forget  and  forgive. 

God  in  mercy  give  us  all  such  memories  [applause] , 

The  action  plead  for  v^as  finally  taken  in  1882;  but  that 
^'good  gray  head"  had  been  two  years  under  the  sod.  Or 
rather — shall  we  not  say? — that  lofty  spirit  had  joined  the 
general  assembly  where  brethren  always  dwell  together  in 
unity. 

If  Dr.  Hoge  failed  to  accomplish,  by  the  action  of  the 
Savannah  Assembly,  his  heart's  desire  on  this  subject,  there 
was  another  subject,  closely  akin,  in  w^hich  his  efforts  were 
crowned  with  complete  success. 

In  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  the  St.  Louis  Assembly, 
Dr.  Stuart  Robinson  had  attended  a  conference  in  London 
composed  of  representatives  of  the  most  important  Presby- 
terian bodies  of  the  world,  with  a  view  to  forming  an  alliance 
for  mutual  conference  and  cooperation.  Dr.  Robinson  pre- 
sented a  report  of  its  proceedings  to  the  Savannah  Assembly, 
wath  a  copy  of  the  provisional  constitution  adopted.  The 
Committee  on  Bills  and  Overtures  reported  through  Dr. 
Hoge  resolutions  approving  the  general  tenor  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  London  conference  and  of  the  constitution 
adopted,  and  providing  for  the  appointment  of  delegates  to 
represent  the  Church  in  the  General  Council  to  be  held  in 
Edinburgh  in  1877. 

The  debate  on  the  resolutions  was  long  and  warm.  Dr. 
Robinson  led  the  debate  in  favor  of  the  resolutions,  and  Dr. 
Adger  in  opposition.  Dr.  Hoge  remained  silent  through 
the  whole  discussion,  which  lasted  several  days,  but  was,  by 
the  courtesy  of  the  house,  accorded  the  closing  speech.  The 
opposition  was  based  partly  upon  the  idea  that  the  Alliance 


282  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

might  grow  into  an  ecumenical  council,  with  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  over  the  churches ;  partly  upon  the  heterodoxy 
or  doubtful  orthodoxy  of  some  of  the  churches  represented ; 
partly  upon  the  expense  involved  without  corresponding 
benefit;  partly  upon  the  compromising  position  in  which  it 
would  place  the  church  to  enter  the  same  body  with  the 
Northern  church,  while  refusing  direct  correspondence  with 
that  church.  Unquestionably  the  gravamen  of  the  opposi- 
tion was  on  the  last  ground,  but  on  that  ground  alone  the 
opposition  could  not  command  a  majority  of  the  Assembly,, 
as  shown  by  its  action  on  ''fraternal  relations."  The  great 
work,  therefore,  of  those  who  favored  the  Alliance  was  to 
demolish  the  other  arguments. 

Dr.  Hoge  began  by  saying  that  "to  argue  for  victory  is 
unworthy  of  a  member  of  an  ecclesiastical  court ;  to  seek  to 
ascertain  what  is  true  and  then  to  do  what  is  right  is  an 
obligation  resting  on  every  one."  He  did  not  wish  to  take 
advantage  of  his  position  in  making  the  closing  speech,  and 
if  any  one  had  any  questions  to  ask  or  any  answer  to  make- 
to  anything  he  said,  he  hoped  he  would  not  hesitate  to  do 
so.  "It  does  not  interrupt  me  to  be  interrupted."  Dr. 
Girardeau — Dr.  Hoge's  predecessor  in  the  moderatorship, 
but  a  visitor  at  that  Assembly — said  to  a  gentleman  sitting 
by  him,  "Now  watch  him;  out  of  these  interruptions  will 
come  his  happiest  hits  and  his  finest  flights." 

Dr.  Hoge  first  met  the  point  that  the  agitation  threatened 
the  peace  of  the  church.  "If  peace  were  the  only  watchword, 
none  of  the  charters  of  rights  would  have  been  wrung  from 
unwilling  tyrants,  none  of  the  battles  of  freedom  would  have 
been  fought.  The  cry  of  peace  must  never  arrest  true 
progress." 

The  progress  in  this  movement  was  not  towards  consoli- 
dation, but  towards  spiritual  unity.  Spiritual  unity  could  be 
recognized  without  organic  union.  The  tendency  of  the  age 
— and  one  of  its  best  tendencies — was  the  disposition  of 
Christians  to  recognize  the  essential  truths  which  they  held 


Broader  Fields.  283 

in  common  as  bonds  of  spiritual  affection,  leading  them  to 
unite  in  such  general  Christian  work  as  they  could  prosecute 
together. 

The  question  of  constitutionality  could  be  met  by  a  reso- 
lution he  proposed  to  offer,  declaring  the  council  to  be,  not  a 
court,  but  only  an  assemblage  of  committees  meeting  for 
conference  and  cooperation.  The  question  of  expense  was 
an  individual  one  for  the  delegates  appointed  or  their 
churches.  To  a  question  as  to  whether  representation  was 
to  be  confined  to  rich  ministers  and  churches,  he  replied  that 
the  Presbyterian  Church  recognized  no  such  distinctions, 
and  that  he  was  sure  the  brother  had  noL  intended  to  excite 
class  prejudices  by  his  question;  but  if  this  brother  was 
appointed  a  delegate,  he  would  see  that  the  question  of  ex- 
pense was  not  an  obstacle  to  his  going.  It  was  not  necessary 
to  send  a  full  delegation.  One  man  like  his  friend  Dr. 
Palmer  could  adequately  represent  the  whole  church. 

Having  thus  cleared  the  ground.  Dr.  Hoge  addressed  him- 
self to  the  main  question  of  cui  bono — the  advantage  to  be 
derived  from  the  alliance.  It  was,  in  a  word,  a  plea  for 
breadth  as  opposed  to  narrowness,  for  contact  and  commu- 
nion as  opposed  to  isolation  and  exclusion,  for  progress  as 
opposed  to  stagnation ;  but,  while  keeping  steadily  on  with 
his  argument,  he  met  in  passing  a  running  fire  of  questions. 

Gen. .•  Does  Dr.  Hoge  consider  the  French  Protes- 
tant Church,  which  was  a  member  of  the  Confederation,  a 
sound  church? 

Dr.  Hoge:  A  portion  of  the  French  Church  is  unques- 
tionably orthodox. 

Ge>i.  .■  A  gentleman  in  this  Assembly  who  has  re- 
sided in  France  tells  me  that  three-fourths  of  the  Protestant 
Church  of  France  deny  the  divinity  of  Christ. 

Dr.  Hoge:  That  is  partially  true,  and  greatly  to  be  de- 
plored, but  it  is  not  true  of  the  branch  of  the  French  Church 
represented  in  this  Alliance. 

Gen. ;  Do  you  consider  the  Northern  Church  ortho- 
dox? 


284  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Dr.  Hoge:  I  do  in  the  sense  that  that  word  is  applied  to 
other  churches  in  this  AlHance,  and — leaving  out  of  the 
question  organic  union — I  consider  the  Northern  Church 
orthodox  to  the  extent  that  I  am  willing  to  enter  into  fra- 
ternal relations  with  that  church  whenever  a  basis  is 
adopted  proposing  terms  which  are  just  on  their  part  and 
honorable  to  ourselves. 

This  was  greeted  with  a  sudden  outburst  of  applause, 
which  was  promptly  suppressed  by  the  Moderator  as  against 
the  rules  of  the  Assembly. 

Mr.  C:  Would  a  majority  of  the  council  sanction  the 
view  that  it  was  a  mere  confederation  of  committees  ? 

Dr.  Hoge:  That  subject  has  already  been  fully  con- 
sidered.   We  cannot  go  back  and  discuss  it  again. 

Mr.  C:  I  do  not  want  to  go  back. 

Dr.  Hoge:  Then  suppose  you  join  us  and  go  forward. 

In  response  to  a  question  as  to  some  doctrine  held  by  one 
of  the  smaller  continental  churches  Dr.  Hoge  rejoined : 

Moderator,  I  wish  I  knew  everything.  I  could  solve  all 
doubts  about  the  orthodoxy  of  continental  creeds  and  con- 
fessions, if  I  were  minutely  acquainted  with  all  the  subtle 
metaphysical  distinctions,  and  with  all  the  theological  con- 
troversies on  abstruse  points  since  the  Reformation. 

Dr.  Adger:  If  this  Assembly  sends  delegates  to  the  coun- 
cil, what  guarantee  have  we  that  those  churches  will  not 
violate  their  constitutions,  and  take  actions  which  this 
church  could  not  endorse?  Has  not  moderatism  been  the 
bane  of  some  of  those  churches,  and  while  holding  the  same 
form  of  government,  have  they  not  been  sliding  into  serious 
error?  Can  we  devolve  our  responsibility  on  other  bodies, 
instead  of  being  the  guardians  of  the  trust  which  has  been 
committed  to  us,  and  which  we  are  bound  sacredly  to 
guard  ? 

Dr.  Hoge:  Moderator,  of  course  we  cannot  transfer  to 
anybody  the  responsibility  which  belongs  to  us,  but  have 
we  not  a  guarantee  in  the  character  of  the  great  churches 
which  are  represented  in  the  Alliance  that  they  will  not 
betray  the  interests  which  are  as  dear  to  them  as  to  our- 


Broader  Fields.  285 

selves?  Have  they  nothing  at  stake?  Have  not  the  men 
who  made  Christ's  crown  and  covenant  their  watchword 
regard  for  the  honor  of  the  Redeemer  and  the  purity  of  the 
church  ?  Are  they  the  men  to  dishonor  their  own  traditions 
and  to  violate  the  constitutions  of  their  own  churches?  If 
we  cannot  trust  them,  whom  can  we  trust?  In  the  course 
of  this  debate  we  have  been  told  by  some  that  it  is  their 
design  to  make  the  Alliance  a  high  court,  a  sort  of  spiritual 
star  chamber;  that  they  will  begin  by  discussion  and  end 
by  imposing  their  decisions  upon  us ;  that  these  churches 
are  full  of  latitudinarianism,  broad-churchism,  and  ration- 
alism, and  that  we  will  be  contaminated  by  association  with 
them.  Who  are  the  men  who  cannot  bear  the  test  of  the 
light  of  our  purity?  Is  there  no  genuine  Presbyterianism 
but  ours?  If  the  only  pure  Church  is  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  these  Southern  States;  if  the  problem  of  the 
development  of  Christianity  as  symbolized  in  the  Presby- 
terian faith  and  form  of  government  has  been  solved  only 
by  us ;  if  after  all  the  great  sacrifices  of  confessors  and 
martyrs  of  past  ages,  we  alone  constitute  the  true  Church ; 
if  this  only  is  the  result  of  the  stupendous  sacrifice  on  Cal- 
vary, and  the  struggles  of  apostles  and  missionaries  and 
reformers  in  all  generations ;  then  may  God  have  mercy 
on  the  world  and  on  His  Church.  Moderator,  when  night 
casts  its  mantle  over  the  earth,  and  one  by  one  the  constella- 
tions of  heaven  shine  forth  until  the  whole  sky  is  illumined 
with  their  glory,  how  would  it  look  for  one  star  on  the 
southern  horizon  to  say,  "I  am  the  heavenly  host?"  When 
a  fleet  is  drawn  up  for  a  naval  engagement,  and  monitors, 
and  seventy-fours,  and  iron-clads  are  ranged  for  action, 
how  would  it  look  for  a  single  gunboat  to  proclaim,  "I  am 
the  fleet?" 

Are  we  willing  that  some  of  the  sentiments  which  have 
been  expressed  on  this  subject  should  go  forth  to  the  world 
as  the  voice  of  the  General  Assembly?  In  the  name  of 
what  is  due  to  our  own  character  for  justice  and  charity; 
for  the  sake  of  what  is  due  to  that  article  in  the  creed,  so 
dear  to  us  all,  "I  believe  in  the  communion  of  saints;"  by 
the  regard  we  should  cherish  for  the  good  name  of  God's 
venerable  servants  in  those  lands  from  which  we  derive 
our  lineage  and  our  religion ;  I  protest  against  such  a  mis- 
representation of  the  spirit  of  this  Assembly.     Brethren, 


286  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

allow  us  to  make  the  experiment  of  association  with  other 
churches  for  consultation  about  the  interests  of  Christ's 
kingdom,  and  then  throw  around  us  what  guards  and  re- 
strictions you  please.  Allow  our  Church  to  come  into  line, 
and  take  her  legitimate  place  in  the  great  family-gathering 
of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  the  world.  We  have  no 
wish  for  organic  union  with  any  other  Church,  but  we  do 
wish  to  be  recognized,  and  to  be  conscious  ourselves,  that 
we  belong  to  the  great  Presbyterian  brotherhood.  Per- 
mit our  Church  to  take  the  position  to  which  she  has  been 
so  cordially  invited.  Let  us  see  if  we  cannot  cooperate 
with  other  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  family,  and  by  con- 
ference and  intercliange  of  views  advance  the  interests  of 
our  Redeemer's  kingdom.  Let  us  not  be  suspicious  of 
other  Churches  of  like  faith  and  order  with  ourselves,  but, 
taking  the  word  and  relying  on  the  honor  of  God's  min- 
isters and  office-bearers  in  the  eldership,  let  us  see  if  we 
cannot  help  them  by  our  cooperation,  and  be  helped  by 
them,  as  we  plan  and  labor  together  in  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  and  in  the  bonds  of  peace. 

After  this  outburst,  lifting  the  whole  question  into  the 
high,  clear  atmosphere  of  eternal  truth,  no  man  durst  ask 
him  any  more  questions.  "What  did  I  tell  you?"  said  Dr. 
Girardeau. 

It  was  generally  remarked  that  Dr.  Hoge,  who  had  been 
hitherto  known  as  a  great  orator,  on  this  occasion  proved 
himself  a  great  debater ;  but  it  was  far  more  than  a  personal 
triumph.  It  brought  the  Southern  Church  out  of  the  exclu- 
siveness  and  isolation  toward  which  it  was  tending,  into 
Hving  contact  with  world-wide  interests.  It  has  breathed  a 
larger,  freer  air  ever  since. 

Dr.  Hoge's  next  concern  was  to  see  that  the  Church  was 
properly  represented  in  the  council.  Of  course,  he  was  a 
delegate,  and  so  was  Dr.  Robinson,  and  both  would  go ;  but 
some  who  had  been  appointed  could  not  go,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  replace  them  with  the  best  men  possible.  Then  there 
were  others  who  were  willing  to  go,  and  who  would  add 
much  to  the  weight  of  the  delegation,  who  could  not  afford 


Broader  Fields.  287 

the  whole  expense.  These  matters  were  the  subject  of  much 
correspondence  between  Dr.  Hoge  and  Dr.  Robinson;  but 
before  they  were  brought  to  a  conchision,  another  matter 
arose,  of  which  he  wrote : 

Knowing  that  I  had  to  go  to  Europe  in  June,  I  de- 
termined to  visit  every  family  in  my  congregation  before 
I  sailed,  and  just  as  I  commenced  my  systematic  rounds, 
the  lamentable  defalcation  in  the  Committee  of  Publication 
burst  upon  us  like  a  water-spout  in  a  Halcyon  sea,  and 
being  chairman  of  the  committee,  I  set  myself  at  once  to 
repair  the  disaster.  I  did  not  have  a  day,  not  an  hour,  to 
lose ;  but  it  has  already  cost  me  an  entire  month.  I  went 
to  Atlanta,  Macon,  and  Augusta,  to  raise  money  to  meet 
the  terrible  loss  ;  and  my  presbytery,  in  spite  of  my  remon- 
strances, insisted  on  my  representing  it  and  the  Committee 
of  Publication  in  the  General  Assembly,  which  meets  on 
the  17th  in  New  Orleans,  and  this  will  cost  me  two  weeks 
more.  I  go  next  Monday,  and  when  I  return  I  will  have 
barely  time  to  pack  my  trunk  and  be  off  for  New  York,  for 
my  passage  is  engaged  on  the  Scythia  (of  the  Cunard 
Line),  which  sails  on  the  13th  of  June.  This  is  a  hard  dis- 
pensation, for  I  wished  to  make  some  preparation  for  the 
Edinburgh  Council,  as  I  have  to  speak  on  the  first  day; 
but  now  I  will  have  no  time  for  preparation,  and  will  suffer 
the  disadvantage  of  making  an  extempore  address ;  but  I 
have  had  no  more  control  of  my  movements  than  if  I  had 
been  an  automaton. 

His  efforts  were  successful  in  preventing  any  summary 
action  by  the  Assembly  in  the  affairs  of  the  publishing  house, 
and  by  patient  and  indefatigable  efforts,  running  through 
many  years,  with  the  business-like  management  of  the 
present  secretary,  this  fine  property  was  saved  to  the  church. 

From  the  Assembly  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf : 

New  Orleans,  May  24,  1S77. 

My  Dear  Sister  :  I  have  come  to  the  desk  of  one  of  the 
clerks,  while  the  Assembly  is  in  session,  to  write  you  this 
line,  liable  to  an  interruption  every  moment. 

This  is  the  land  of  summer  most  of  the  year,  and  of 


288  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

almost  perpetual  flowers,  but  the  brightest  and  most  fra- 
grant was  the  one  wafted  by  a  northern  breeze  from  New 
Brunswick. 

We  are  having  a  pleasant  time  socially.  A  few  of  the  old 
families  here  still  retain  their  wealth  and  former  homes 
and  style  of  living.  I  dined  yesterday  with  one  of  them. 
As  we  went  in  to  dinner,  the  old  lady  on  my  arm,  in  pass- 
ing the  broad  staircase  there  came  floating  down  two  young 
granddaughters  all  in  white,  looking  like  the  angels  who 
came  down  Jacob's  golden  ladder,  to  bless  the  men  who 
waited  for  their  coming  below. 

The  dinners  have  many  courses  here — in  proper  se- 
quence, with  the  proper  vegetables  served  with  each  meat 
or  bird,  and  a  great  variety  of  wines.  Well,  it  is  pleasant  to 
sit  by  a  good  old  lady  at  such  a  dinner  (provided  her  tender 
granddaughter  is  on  the  other  side)  and  take  course  after 
course,  leisurely,  with  much  conversation  between,  antici- 
pating the  crowning  cup  of  cafe  noir  and  cigar. 

But  I  like  nearly  as  well  to  dine  with  a  plain  (clean) 
family,  on  black-eyed  peas  and  jowl,  and  ash-cake  for  the 
last  course ;  but  all  this  is  extra-ecclesiastical,  and  for  that 
reason  to  me  all  the  more  pleasant,  for  I  am  weary  of  the 
discussion  of  our  Book  of  Church  Order. 

I  was  very  anxious  to  get  off  to-morrow  morning  and  be 
as  far  on  my  way  toward  Richmond  as  possible  before 
Sunday;  but  the  subject  in  which  I  am  most  interested  is 
not  yet  out  of  the  hands  of  the  committee,  and  cannot  be 
acted  on  to-day. 

Several  vacancies  having  occurred  in  the  list  of  those 
appointed  to  the  Edinburgh  Council,  it  was  necessary  to 
make  new  nominations.  I  wanted  Drs.  Plumer,  Irvine  of 
Augusta,  Brown  and  J.  L.  Wilson  elected,  and  got  each  of 
them  elected  without  nominating  either  of  them  myself, 
with  the  exception  of  Dr.  Irvine. 

My  life  has  taken  a  strange  direction  of  late  with  so 
many  unexpected  duties  thrust  upon  me,  but  I  have  tried 
to  do  the  work  of  each  day  as  it  arose. 

Your  account  of  your  father's  health  and  activity  is  most 
cheering.  His  presence  with  you  is  like  a  long,  mellow 
radiance,  making  your  own  life  calmer  and  fuller  of  sol- 
emn joy. 

I  am  writing  you  these  incoherent  lines,  listening  to  the 


Broader  Fields.  289 

debate  all  the  while,  occasionally  answering-  questions,  be- 
cause I  fear  I  may  have  no  other  opportunity  as  good  as 
this  even.  The  weather  is  warm  here,  though  not  oppres- 
sive, but  no  warmer  than  the  affection  of  M.  D.  H. 

It  was  a  noble  delegation  that  finally  went  to  represent 
the  little  Southern  Church.  Dr.  Hoge  was  especially  glad 
to  have  Dr.  Brown  for  his  weight  in  counsel,  and  Dr.  Plumer 
for  the  majesty  of  his  presence.  These  two,  with  Dr.  Rob- 
inson and  himself,  were  probably  the  most  notable  men  in 
the  delegation.  There  were  in  all  twelve  ministers  and  two 
ruling  elders — one-half  the  representation  to  which  the 
church  was  entitled. 

Dr.  Robinson  had  the  honor  of  presiding  over  the  council 
the  morning  of  the  opening  day,  and  Dr.  Hoge  spoke  in  the 
evening.  Lord  Moncriefif  in  the  chair.  The  Daily  Reviczv 
said: 

Exceptional  interest  was  excited  by  the  appearance  of  the 
next  speaker.  Dr.  Hoge,  of  Richmond,  Va.  He  stepped 
upon  the  platform— a  tall,  spare,  muscular  man,  of  a  mili- 
tary type  of  physique,  and  features  bronzed  by  the  blazing 
heat  of  a  Southern  sun.  His  manner  at  starting  was  almost 
painfully  deliberate,  and  the  cool  self-restraint  with  which 
he  surveyed  his  audience  and  measured  his  ground  before 
he  opened  his  lips  deepened  the  interest  which  attended  the 
beginning  of  his  speech.  Commencing  with  a  graceful 
compliment  to  the  chairman,  admirable  in  its  spirit  and 
perfect  in  its  manner,  he  dallied  for  a  little  with  his  subject 
in  a  lively  and  almost  gay  humor,  and  then,  mingling  pathos 
with  humor  with  the  happiest  ease,  he  set  forth,  with  dig- 
nity and  breadth  of  view  not  inconsistent  with  great  in- 
tensity and  emotional  excitement,  the  leading  points  of 
his  many-sided  subject — the  simplicity  and  scriptural  char- 
acter of  Presbyterianism,  its  expansiveness  and  adaptation, 
and  its  friendly  aspect  to  other  churches. 

Moncure  D.  Conway,  who  himself  had  "made  a  clean 
sweep  of  all  orthodoxy,"  wrote  of  the  council  to  some  of  the 
American  papers : 


290  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

There  is  one  illusion  often  found  in  other  churches  which 
these  three  days  are  enough  to  dispel.  We  often  hear  it 
said  that  old-fashioned  Calvinism  is  dying  out,  and  election 
and  reprobation  no  longer  preached ;  birt,  on  the  contrary, 
nearly  every  speaker  maintained  the  extremest  Calvinism. 
The  most  rigid  views  of  Calvin  were  iterated  with  inten- 
sity ;  and  the  more  resolute  their  utterance  by  any  speaker, 
the  more  hearty  the  applause.  There,  for  instance,  is  Dr. 
Hoge,  of  Richmond,  whose  tall,  dignified  person,  and  dark, 
moody  brow,  as  he  entered,  made  me  start  as  if  Mazzini 
had  come  to  life.  The  nervous  twitching  of  the  face,  with 
the  pale  cast  of  thought,  and  study,  too,  so  full  upon  it; 
the  flame  of  the  eye  ranging  from  the  dove  to  the  eagle,  the 
voice  now  aeolian,  now  thunder — why  one  could  as  easily 
mistake  the  physiognomy  of  a  falcon.  I  remember  once 
hearing  John  Daniel,  sometime  editor  of  the  Richmond 
Examiner,  who  had  made  a  clean  sweep  of  all  orthodoxy, 
say  that  somehow  he  did  not  like  to  hear  Dr.  Hoge,  and  I 
do  not  wonder,  since  I  heard  the  same  man  last  night, 
making  a  clean  sweep  of  all  the  timidities  and  time- 
servings which  would  cut  the  roots  of  his  faith  and  church. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  Dr.  Eels,  of  California,  a  man 
personally  of  the  same  make  and  complexion.  Every  word 
he  uttered  was  organic — came  out  of  his  bones ;  and  there 
is  no  compromise  about  him.  "We  will,"  said  Dr.  Hoge, 
"have  no  broad  church  in  the  sense  of  a  Calvinistic  creed 
with  an  Arminian  clergy ;"  and  his  old  Huguenot  blood 
burned  in  his  cheeks.  "Craven  temporizers,  who  dare  not 
preach  what  is  plainly  written  in  God's  word."  The  next 
moment  he  told  of  his  old  Bible  which  his  forefathers  car- 
ried to  their  refuge  in  Holland — "the  family  names  in  it  are 
dim ;  I  hope  they  are  bright  in  the  book  of  life,"  and  one 
felt  what  warmth  it  was  that  called  up  his  storm.  "Exalt 
God,"  cried  the  Californian ;  "that  is  our  answer  to  those 
who  would  exalt  reason.  Exalt  law !  Grace  is  not  sur- 
render of  law.  Pardon  is  not  weakness  prompted  by  love, 
but  power,  and  rebels  must  first  lay  down  their  arms." 
But  he,  too,  revealed  the  tender  hand  beneath  the  iron 
gauntlet,  as  he  almost  pleaded  with  the  disbeliever  for  the 
spent  swimmer,  who  has  reached  a  rock  among  the  waves, 
not  to  shove  him  ofif,  because  his  rock  is  not  a  continent. 
The  disbeliever  might  ask  what  of  those  who  find  no  rock. 


Broader  Fields.  291 

for  whom  it  is  a  question  whether  they  can  find  any  shore ; 
but  he  must  be  more  a  bigot  than  a  skeptic  who  does  not 
feel  the  superior  grandeur  of  the  exalted  law  than  of  the 
apotheosized  sentimentality  with  which  so  many  have  tried 
to  withstand  Calvinism. 

Dr.  Hoge  received  many  social  attentions  and  marks  of 
honor  during  the  council,  and,  by  the  appointment  of  the 
business  committee,  moved  the  Address  to  the  Queen,  which 
was  seconded  by  Dr.  Pressense. 

Of  his  travels  that  summer  he  wrote  to  his  sister,  Mrs. 
Marquess : 

Since  the  adjournment  of  the  council,  I  have  visited 
Lochs  Lomond,  Katrine  and  Long,  going  by  way  of  the 
Trossachs  ;  then  on  to  Aberdeen,  Inverness,  down  the  Cale- 
donian Canal  to  Oban ;  thence  to  Staffa  and  lona,  and  by 
the  Kyles  of  Bute  to  Glasgow.  On  the  way  I  accepted  sev- 
eral invitations  to  visit  gentlemen  whose  acquaintance  I 
made  in  Edinburgh.  Had  I  accepted  all,  I  would  not  have 
got  out  of  Scotland  this  summer.  One  of  the  most  de- 
lightful of  the  little  voyages  I  made  was  to  Staffa  and  lona 
from  Oban.  These  islands  are  only  accessible  in  moder- 
ately calm  weather,  as  passengers  have  to  be  landed  from 
the  steamer  in  boats.  It  had  been  very  stormy  the  day  be- 
fore, so  that  nothing  could  land  on  these  surf -beaten  shores, 
but,  though  there  was  a  dark  cloud  and  a  rainbow  ("sailors 
take  warning")  at  seven  a.  m.,  when  we  left  Oban,  the 
weather  became  fine,  and  I  was  almost  in  a  rapture  as  I 
walked  over  the  island  home  of  the  ancient  Culdees  of  lona, 
and  heard  the  ocean  thunder  through  the  vast  portal  of 
Fingal's  Cave  in  Staffa.  I  have  been  two  days  in  London, 
and  expect  next  week  to  go  to  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Den- 
mark, returning  by  way  of  Berlin,  Vienna  and  Paris  to 
London. 

In  London  he  had  the  opportunity  of  meeting  his  friend 
by  correspondence,  Mr.  Beresford-Hope,  and  of  renewing 
his  acquaintance  with  Lord  Shaftesbury,  through  whose 
courtesy  he  had  two  years  before  been  elected  a  member  of 
the  Victoria  Institute. 


292  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

The  following  summer  he  again  went  abroad — this  time 
with  Dr.  Hunter  McGuire,  "who  is  taking  me  as  his  chap- 
lain, or  I  am  taking  him  as  my  physician,  just  as  people 
choose  to  have  it.  I  hope  we  may  both  get  good  from  the 
company  of  the  other."  Dr.  Hoge  was  greatly  delighted 
at  the  honors  shown  Dr.  McGuire  by  the  medical  profession 
abroad,  and  Dr.  McGuire  seems  to  have  been  equally  inter- 
ested in  the  impression  made  by  Dr.  Hoge's  preaching,  as 
appears  from  this  note  from  the  editor  of  the  Honiiletic 
Magazine  (London)  : 

Dear  Dr.  McGuire:  I  have  to  thank  you  for  a  very 
pleasant  chat  at  dinner  last  evening.  I  hope  some  day  to 
meet  you  again. 

You  asked  me  one  question  to  which  I  gave  what  might 
have  seemed  an  off-hand  answer.  It  was  about  Dr.  Hoge's 
sermon.  Let  me  say  in  all  seriousness  that  it  was  a  glori- 
ous soul-lifting  sermon  and  produced  an  immense  impres- 
sion. The  power,  pathos,  pleading  and  spirituality  of  that 
address  I  have  never  heard  surpassed.  No  notes,  too !  No 
memorizing !  All  free,  direct,  natural.  You  have  reason  to 
be  proud  of  your  preacher.  He  is  our  Spurgeon,  Parker 
and  Liddon  in  one. 

Pardon  my  enthusiastic  way  of  writing.  Possibly  my 
admiration  for  the  good  Doctor's  character  makes  me  write 
in  this  strain.     Bon  voyage, 

Yours  truly,  Frfd.  Hastings. 

On  his  return  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  to  a  friend  : 

The  old  world  was  not  so  interesting  to  me  the  last  time 
I  saw  it.  I  have  become  somewhat  wearied  with  galleries, 
museums,  and  antiquities  in  architecture,  and  I  find  Euro- 
peans inferior  to  our  own  people  in  so  many  respects  that 
I  am  more  than  ever  contented  with  my  own  country. 

All  we  need  is  the  continuance  of  a  free  and  stable  gov- 
ernment to  make  this  the  happiest  country  on  the  globe,  and 
I  trust  that  the  kind  providence  which  has  preserved  our 
liberties  so  long  and  the  institutions  which  have  made  us 
prosperous,  will  still  show  us  his  favor.  I  find,  however, 
that  many  thoughtful  men  look  forward  to  a  near  future 
of  strife  and  disintegration,  which  may  Heaven  avert ! 


Broader  Fields.  293 

Perhaps  when  he  wrote  this  letter  he  had  in  mind  a  con- 
fidential commimication  from  a  United  States  senator,  ask- 
ing to  1)e  put  in  immediate  communication  with  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston ;  that  the  Secretary  of  War  was  very- 
anxious  over  the  threatened  labor  troubles ;  that  should  sev- 
eral States  make  requisitions,  the  available  Federal  force  was 
very  small,  and  little  confidence  was  felt  in  the  State  militia 
for  such  emergencies.  The  idea  was  to  call  out  the  old  Con- 
federates !    Happily  there  was  no  such  need. 

In  1879  he  was  appointed  a  delegate  to  the  meeting  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  at  Basle,  but  could  not  go,  chiefly  be- 
cause he  had  in  reserve  the  fulfilling  of  a  long-cherished 
desire  to  visit  the  lands  of  the  East.  His  friends,  Mr,  and 
Mrs.  T.  William  Pemberton,  who  were  already  abroad,  had 
urged  him  to  be  their  guest  in  travelling  with  them  anywhere 
he  might  prefer.  Early  in  1880  he  went,  and  after  a  short 
time  in  Italy,  where  he  joined  his  friends,  they  sailed  for 
Eg3^pt  to  spend  the  month  of  March.  April  and  a  part  of 
May  were  spent  in  Palestine  and  Syria,  travelling  with  their 
own  dragoman  and  camp.  On  the  Phoenician  coast  Dr.  Hoge 
nearly  lost  his  life.  The  road  led  right  into  the  Litany,  and 
as  there  was  no  sign  to  a  stranger  that  the  river  was  higher 
than  normal,  he  rode  boldly  in.  In  a  moment  his  horse  was 
swimming  and  unable  to  withstand  the  current  that  was 
sweeping  out  to  the  Mediterranean  whose  broad  surface, 
with  ships  afloat  upon  it,  was  in  full  view.  Dr.  Hoge's  fine 
horsemanship  and  cool  head  saved  him.  Not  endeavoring 
to  stem  the  current,  he  turned  his  horse's  head  obliquely 
towards  the  bank.  He  reached  it  at  last,  of  course  below  the 
ford,  and  as  the  bank  was  steep,  it  was  only  after  several 
efforts  that  his  horse's  hoofs  took  hold,  and  man  and  beast 
were  saved.  The  joy  of  his  friends,  who  had  stood  paralyzed 
on  the  shore  unable  to  lend  any  aid  to  their  beloved  friend, 
can  only  be  imagined. 

At  the  spot  near  Shechem  where  Joshua  celebrated  the 
dedication  of  the  land  in  the  two  great  natural  amphitheatres 


294  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

that  confront  each  other  on  the  converging  slopes  of  Mount 
Ebal  and  Mount  Gerizim,  Dr.  Hoge,  with  the  Rev.  Harry- 
Jones,  rector  of  St.  George's-in-the-East,  London,  tried  an 
interesting  experiment.  Mr.  Jones  ascended  Mount  Ebal 
and  Dr.  Hoge  Mount  Gerizim,  their  friends  remaining  in 
the  valley  below ;  Mr.  Jones  read  a  portion  from  the  Prayer- 
book  and  Dr.  Hoge  repeated  the  twenty-third  Psalm.  Each 
heard  the  other,  and  the  Richmond  party  in  the  valley  de- 
clared they  had  never  heard  their  pastor  more  distinctly  in 
his  own  church :  yet  the  amphitheatres  at  the  back  of  which 
the  ministers  stood  are  of  ample  size  to  have  held  the  whole 
congregation  of  Israel.^ 

From  Palestine  they  went  to  Asia  Minor,  Constantinople 
and  Greece,  reaching  London  early  in  June.  Physically  Dr. 
Hoge  was  much  exhausted  by  this  trip,  and  spent  the  sum- 
mer quietly  resting  on  the  coast  of  Wales.  Intellectually  and 
spiritually  it  was  the  most  stimulating  voyage  of  his  life. 
He  has  often  said  that  he  had  never  since  preached  a  sermon 
without  feeling  its  influence,  though  he  might  make  no  allu- 
sion to  anything  he  had  seen.  And  not  only  did  he  get  good,, 
but  do  good.  He  and  his  friends  are  held  in  cordial  remem- 
brance by  the  missionaries  along  their  route,  and  his  ad- 
dresses to  the  students  of  the  x\merican  College  at  Beirut  and 
Robert  College,  Constantinople,  are  remembered  to  this  day. 

Of  course.  Dr.  Hoge  was  in  much  demand  for  college 
addresses  in  his  own  country,  and,  whenever  he  could  com- 
mand the  time,  he  was  glad  to  seize  these  opportunities  of 
impressing  the  choice  young  men  of  the  land — the  men  who 
held  the  key  to  the  future.  The  most  important  occasion  of 
this  kind  during  this  decade  was  his  centennial  oration  on 
the  completion  of  the  hundredth  year  of  his  own  college 
( 1876)  ;  but  he  greatly  enjoyed  a  visit  to  the  University  of 

1  In  1898  I  completed  the  experiment,  with  Dr.  John  L.  Campbell,  of 
New  York,  and  the  Rev.  R.  E.  Caldwell,  of  Winston,  N.  C,  demon- 
strating that  one  speaking  from  the  centre  of  the  valley  could  be  heard 
at  the  utmost  verge  of  the  amphitheatre. 


Broader  Fields.  295 

North  Carolina,  where  he  not  only  preached  the  baccalau- 
reate sermon,  but  at  the  last  moment  took  the  place  of  Mr. 
Thurman  for  the  annual  address;  and  he  relished  with 
boyish  pleasure  his  reception  at  Due  West,  S.  C,  the  seat  of 
the  Synodical  Colleges  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church. 
When  he  stepped  from  the  train  he  saw  a  disappointed  com- 
mittee of  students  turn  to  each  other  and  say,  "He  didn't 
come."  "Perhaps  I  am  the  person  you  are  looking  for;  I 
am  Dr.  Hoge."  "You  Dr.  Hoge?  Why,  we  zvere  expecting 
an  old  man!" 

During  this  time,  and  for  a  decade  longer,  he  was  also 
much  sought  after  as  a  platform  lecturer.  He  never  accepted 
remuneration,  and  lectured  only  for  benevolent  and  philan- 
thropic objects.  He  declined  all  but  the  most  pressing  calls, 
and  finally  had  to  stop  altogether.  As  the  line  had  to  be 
drawn  somewhere,  he  preferred  to  devote  what  time  he  had 
for  extra  service  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  His  most 
noted  lectures  were  "An  Arabian  Night's  Parable,"  "Ich 
Dien,"  "Modern  Chivalry,"  "The  Land  of  the  Midnight 
Sun,"  and  "Tent  Life  in  the  East." 

The  fertility  of  his  fancy,  the  gaiety  of  his  wit,  his  delight 
in  roving  through  the  fields  of  literature  and  personal  remi- 
niscence, all  came  into  play  upon  the  platform,  but  in  the 
pulpit  he  stood  as  an  ambassador  for  Christ;  and  while  his 
preaching  made  a  profound  impression  wherever  he  went, 
his  best  efforts  were  in  his  own  pulpit,  where  the  thought 
came  hot  from  his  heart;  and  its  richness  could  only  be 
appreciated  by  hearing  him  Sunday  after  Sunday. 

Probably  his  preaching  never  attained  a  higher  plane  than 
in  the  last  three  years  of  this  decade,  when  the  writer  had 
this  privilege.  Certainly  there  was  no  ebbing  of  the  tide  for 
many  years  yet;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  the  preaching  of  this 
time  was  ever  surpassed.  There  are  texts  that  can  never  be 
read  to  this  day  without  ringing  with  the  cadence  of  his 
voice,  and  there  are  thoughts  that  rise  in  the  mind  as  from 
living  fountains,  with  all  the  freshness  of  those  happy  days. 


296  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

While  the  standard  of  preaching  was  uniformly  high,  and 
the  congregation  uniformly  full,  there  are  some  outstanding 
occasions  when  the  preacher  surpassed  himself,  and  the  con- 
gregations overflowed. 

Once  the  students  of  Richmond  College  asked  him  to 
preach  from  the  text,  "And  there  shall  be  no  night  there." 
They  themselves  made  the  brief  announcement  in  the  papers, 
and  nothing  more  was  said;  but  long  before  the  hour  of 
service  the  people  began  pouring  in ;  pews  and  galleries  were 
packed;  seats  were  placed  in  the  aisles  and  every  available 
inch  of  floor  was  covered,  and  every  possible  seat  was  filled. 
As  Dr.  Hoge  entered,  he  took  in  with  one  quick  glance  the 
audience,  and  one  could  see  him  rein  himself  back,  as  it  were, 
like  a  blooded  horse,  and  knew  that  he  would  equal  the 
occasion. 

And  that  sermon  who  that  heard  it  can  forget  ?  How  he 
brought  out  the  charms  of  the  night — the  intercourse  with 
friends ;  the  communion  with  the  great  minds  of  the  past ; 
the  quiet  for  refl.ection  and  introspection ;  the  sweetness  of 
rest;  the  refreshingness  of  change.  Then  the  beauties  of 
the  night !  Now  one  heart  in  the  congregation  began  to  beat 
faster.  The  night  before,  at  the  supreme  moment  of  an 
occultation  of  Venus,  he  had  ventured  to  interrupt  him  at 
his  study.  He  had  given  one  quick  glance,  one  expression 
of  admiration,  and  returned  to  his  work ;  but  here  it  comes ! 
"Who  that  looked  forth  last  night,  and  saw  the  crescent 
moon,  with  the  evening  star  just  trembling  on  its  silver  horn, 
could  wish  to  lose  these  ever-changing  beauties  in  the  pano- 
rama of  the  heavens?"  Why  then  should  there  be  no  night 
in  heaven  ?  How  could  heaven  be  complete,  and  lack  those 
elements  of  joy  and  beauty  that  night  contributes  to  our 
happiness  here  ? 

Then  followed  such  an  exposition  of  the  glory  of  Christ, 
its  sufiiciency  to  satisfy  every  aspiration  of  the  soul,  and  the 
tireless  capacity  of  the  soul  to  receive  and  enjoy,  when  freed 
from  the  limitations  that  make  rest  necessary  to  us  here,  as 


Broader  Fields.  297 

one  does  not  often  hear  in  a  lifetime;  and  the  impression  of 
which  a  Hfetime  is  not  sufficient  to  destroy. 

That  afternoon  he  announced  that  the  next  Sunday  after- 
noon he  would  preach — in  response  to  repeated  requests — on 
"The  Moment  after  Death."  The  congregation  was  larger, 
if  possible,  than  the  previous  evening.  Charles  Ghiselin  was 
with  us  that  day — now  Dr.  Ghiselin,  but  then  a  theological 
student — and  thus  recalls  the  impression  of  the  time : 

The  text  was  not  taken  from  the  Bible,  but  was  found  in 
the  hymn  that  we  sang  before  the  sermon — 

"In  vain  the  fancy  strives  to  pcint 
The  moment  after  death." 

"The  moment  after  death" — that  was  the  theme,  and  he 
began  by  saying  he  would  tell  what  he  had  not  intended  to 
reveal,  how  on  the  night  before,  at  the  dead  hour  of  mid- 
night, he  had  come  into  the  church  and  walked  up  and 
down  before  the  pulpit,  and  thought  of  the  many  he  had 
known  and  loved  w^iose  coffins  had  stood  there,  and  as  he 
thought  of  them,  he  prayed  so  earnestly  that  one  of  them 
might  be  permitted  to  come  back — he  knew  not  whether  it 
was  right,  but  if  it  was  right — that  the  veil  might  be  lifted 
for  a  moment,  a  hand  might  be  stretched  forth  from  the 
darkness,  a  voice  might  speak  to  him  to  tell  him  of  what 
was  after  death. 

"Oh  !  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." 

And  he  went  on  in  matchless  eloquence,  picturing  to  us 
the  scenes  that  burst  upon  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  after 
death.  It  was  all  imagination ;  but  what  does  that  mat- 
ter? Are  not  the  gorgeous  pictures  of  heaven,  that  the 
Bible  gives,  woven  of  the  threads  of  truth  and  love  by  the 
chastened  imagination  of  "the  Holy  Theologian?"  and  who 
shall  say  that  the  sanctified  imaginations  of  God's  minis- 
ters, under  the  special  illumination  of  the  Spirit,  does  not 
give  us  true  pictures  of  heaven  to-day  ? 

We  cannot  better  close  this  chapter — a  chapter  illustrating 
the  strength  that  comes  after  suffering — than  by  the  account 
written  by  Dr.  G.  Watson  James  of  a  sermon  of  Dr.  Hoge's 


298  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

in  September,  1880,  just  after  his  return  from  the  East;  an 
account  which  Dr.  Graham  pronounced  "a.  gem  of  pictorial 
description." 

Sunday  evening,  Mrs.  Rennie's  farm-house,  on  the 
Brook  Turnpike,  was  the  scene  of  a  gathering  for  pubHc 
worship  long  to  be  remembered.  The  services  were  con- 
ducted by  Dr.  Hoge,  assisted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Graham,  of  Lon- 
don. The  congregation  was  composed  of  a  large  gathering 
from  the  neighboring  countryside  and  a  number  of  Dr. 
Hoge's  congregation.  The  front  porch  of  the  farm-house, 
vine-embowered  and  shaded  by  two  majestic  trees,  served 
as  a  pulpit,  and  was  occupied  by  Dr.  Hoge,  Dr.  Graham, 
and  several  of  the  older  members  of  the  congregation, 
while  the  main  portion  of  the  assembly  were  seated  on 
chairs  and  rustic  benches  placed  with  picturesque  irregu- 
larity among  the  rose  bushes  and  shrubbery  of  the  lawn. 
The  services  commenced  a  little  after  five  o'clock  with 
prayer  and  the  singing  of  several  familiar  hymns  ;  and  just 
as  the  shadows  were  lengthening  and  a  dreamy  gold-lit 
haze  began  to  pervade  the  atmosphere,  Dr.  Hoge  com- 
menced his  sermon,  taking  his  text  from  First  Peter  v.  10, 
"But  the  God  of  all  grace  who  hath  called  us  unto  his  eter- 
nal glory  by  Christ  Jesus,  after  that  ye  have  suffered 
a  while,  make  you  perfect,  stablish,  strengthen,  settle 
you." 

If  Dr.  Hoge  rose  with  a  prearranged  discourse  and  de- 
tailed line  of  thought,  he  soon,  it  was  easy  to  see,  lost  it  in 
the  suggestions  of  the  surroundings.  No  man  could  preach 
such  a  sermon,  except  under  the  inspiration  of  the  moment. 
It  was  a  poem  of  consolation,  its  figures,  its  illustrations 
drawn  from  nature's  ever-shifting  panorama,  the  stanzas 
interlaced  with  a  golden  filament  of  gospel  truths  and  the 
refrain  of  each,  "after  that  ye  have  suffered  a  while,"  rising 
and  falling  like  the  sweet,  sad  cadence  of  an  angel  song. 
As  the  speaker  painted  picture  after  picture,  carrying  his 
hearers  through  the  darkness  to  light,  all  nature  seemed  tO' 
break  in  echo — 

"Via  crucis,  via  lucis, 

For  the  righteous  light  is  sown  : 
E'en  from  suffering  God  educes 
Fruit  by  suffering  cheaply  won." 


Broader  Fields.  299 

In  this  picture  the  birds  on  the  trees,  here  the  flowers  of 
the  field,  there  the  swaying  boughs  and  sighing  breeze, 
were  made  to  interpret  his  meaning  and  enforce  the  con- 
soHng  thoughts  of  his  discourse.  A  central  idea — the  the- 
matic chord  that  vibrated  in  every  lesson — was  that  God 
needed  martyrs  as  well  as  missionaries,  the  patient  sufferer 
as  well  as  the  active  worker.  It  was  asked  what  a  man 
could  do  stricken  down  on  a  bed  of  sickness.  It  had  been 
his  good  fortune  to  hear  some  of  the  ablest  divines  in  the 
great  religious  centres  of  the  world ;  but  the  most  effective 
sermons  he  had  ever  heard  were  from  the  bed  of  sickness, 
from  the  death-bed. 

Once  during  the  war,  when  there  were  eleven  thousand 
wounded  men  in  the  city,  he  went  through  Seabrook's 
Hospital.  A  young  soldier  lay  unconscious  and  dying. 
On  one  side  of  the  cot  knelt  the  mother,  on  the  other  the 
aged  father.  The  mother  was  praying  her  boy  to  speak  to 
her;  but  he  died  without  a  sign  of  recognition.  The  old 
man  rose,  and  standing  there,  the  central  figure  of  that 
scene  of  sufifering,  clasped  his  hand  and  preached  this  ser- 
mon, "The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away." 
Here  he  paused  and  his  aged  form  shook.  Could  he  finish 
it?  Yes.  After  a  moment,  with  a  louder  and  a  firmer 
voice,  he  cried,  "Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  and 
every  soldier  about  there  wept  like  a  girl.  Some  one  says 
to  you  that  an  acquaintance  has  lost  a  child.  Well,  it  is  only 
a  little  child — a  little  grave;  but  a  child's  grave  is  large 
enough  to  cast  a  shadow  across  the  world,  at  least  in  the 
eyes  of  the  bereaved  mother.  The  mother's  heart  never 
emerges  from  these  shadows.  Here  again  he  illustrated  by 
implication  the  truth  of  that  "after  ye  have  suffered 
a  while."  There  were  doubtless,  he  said,  mothers  in  the 
congregation  who  could  look  up  to  the  blue  vault  above  and 
see  little  hands  beckoning  them  to  come.  When  he  (Dr. 
Hoge)  was  a  young  man  and  first  read  Longfellow's 
"Psalm  of  Life,"  he  was  charmed  with  it  until  he  came  to 
the  last  line,  "Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait."  He  said  to 
himself,  Did  ever  a  man  bring  a  poem  to  such  a  lame  and 
impotent  conclusion?  Learn  to  wait?  Who  could  not 
wait?  He  had  since  learned  that  the  hardest  thing  in  life 
to  do  was  to  wait. 

Dr.  Hoge  finished  his  discourse  as  the  last  rays  of  the 


300  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

setting  sun  were  bathing  the  scene  in  a  peaceful,  mellow 
radiance ;  and  as  the  gloaming  was  merging  into  darkness, 
Dr.  Graham  brought  the  evening  services  to  a  close  with 
a  fervent,  touching  prayer.  As  we  have  said  before,  the 
scene  was  one  that  must  long  be  remembered — must  linger 
in  the  memory  of  every  one  present  as  a  picture  perhaps 
never  to  be  witnessed  again.  Dr.  Hoge's  illustrations  could 
not  be  reported.  There  was  nothing  that  could  afford  him 
inspiration  that  was  not  seized  upon,  and  when  he  closed, 
there  was  hardly  a  dry  eye  in  the  congregation. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
In  Labors  More  Abundant. 


'•Resolved,  to  live  with  all  my  might  while  I  do  live." — Jonathan 
Edwards. 

UPON  the  death  of  Mrs.  Hoge — or  rather,  upon  the 
faikire  of  her  health — Mrs.  Brown  had  taken  the  keys 
of  the  house,  a  charge  which  she  administered  with  her  ac- 
customed thoroughness  for  a  number  of  years,  when  she  re- 
signed it  to  the  faithful  Scotch  housekeeper,^  who  continued 
with  the  family  as  long  as  Dr.  Hoge  lived.  Under  her 
excellent    management    Dr.    Hoge,    like    Joseph's    master, 

'  The  writer  must  be  pardoned  for  a  brief  tribute  to  this  good 
woman,  whose  arms  were  the  first  that  held  him  in  this  world,  and 
who  saved  his  life  in  infancy  at  the  peril  of  her  own.  Miss  Lizzie  Lind- 
say, afterwards  Mrs.  Drever,  was  one  of  the  best  of  that  class  of 
Scotch  domestics  whose  duty  to  their  employers  is  regulated  by  con- 
science ;  whose  principles  are  based  upon  the  Shorter  Catechism  and 
the  Bible,  and  whose  hours  of  recreation  are  occupied  with  such  light 
literature  as  Horfie's  Introdiictioti  or  Chalmers'  Sermons.  In  her  daily 
life  she  showed  a  constant  fidelity ;  in  great  emergencies,  the  highest 
heroism  and  self-sacrifice.  She  was  tossed  by  a  cow,  but  saved  the 
infant  in  her  arms.  She  was  wrecked  at  sea,  losing  all  she  had  that 
she  might  save  two  children.  My  father  used  to  say  that  she  had  expe- 
rienced everything  except  to  be  struck  by  lightning.  Afterwards  she 
experienced  that.  In  her  childhood  and  youth,  after  the  morning 
"  porridge  "  on  Sunday,  the  family  walked  seven  miles  to  church,  often 
over  the  snow,  took  a  cold  lunch  on  the  grounds  between  services,  and 
walked  home  about  dark  to  partake  of  tea  and  bread  and  butter,  and 
spend  the  evening  reciting  the  Catechism  and  reading  divinity.  In 
such  a  discipline  was  this  stout  fibre  grown. 

"  Long  may  thy  hardy  sons  of  rustic  toil 

Be  blessed  with  health  and  peace  and  sweet  content; 
And  oh  !  may  heaven  their  simple  lives  prevent 
From  luxury's  contagion  weak  and  vile." 

Both  in  Dr.  Hoge's  family  and  in  that  of  his  brother,  whom  she  had 
earlier  served,  she  was  regarded  more  as  a  friend  than  a  servant. 


302  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

"knew  not  aught  he  had,  save  the  bread  which  he  did 
eat." 

To  his  second  daughter,  Mary,  fell  the  care  of  Hampden, 
his  youngest  child.  This  care  she  continued  after  her  mar- 
riage (December  7,  1870)  to  Mr.  Marshall  M.  Gilliam,  and 
when  she  had  children  of  her  own,  he  seemed  but  as  her 
oldest  child.  She  continued  to  reside  with  her  father — at 
first  for  the  sake  of  the  child,  afterwards  for  her  father's 
sake,  and  her  children  added  to  the  brightness  of  the  family 
circle.  Mr.  Gilliam  became  an  elder  in  Dr.  Hoge's  church, 
and  by  his  personal  devotion  to  him,  the  freedom  of  their 
intercourse  in  the  same  house,  and  the  conscientious  thor- 
oughness with  which  he  discharged  all  duties,  was  an  in- 
valuable associate  in  his  work. 

Dr.  Hoge's  anxiety  about  the  health  of  his  oldest  daughter 
has  appeared  more  than  once.  In  spite  of  great  suffering, 
she  kept  up  until  after  her  mother's  death,  when  she  became 
a  confirmed  invalid — for  many  years  entirely  confined  to  her 
bed.  It  was  the  joy  of  the  whole  household  and  of  many 
friends  to  make  her  room  the  most  attractive  spot  in  the 
house;  and  her  own  cheerfulness  of  spirit,  her  strength  of 
will,  repressing  all  signs  of  pain,  and  the  charm  of  her  con- 
versation made  it  the  brightest  spot. 

Here  Dr.  Hoge  came  at  the  close  of  his  long  day's  work 
-for  rest  and  cheer.  With  her  he  talked  over  work  done  and 
plans  for  work  to  come.  Her  A^aried  reading  and  her  dis- 
criminating taste  kept  him  abreast  of  the  best  literature ;  and 
in  the  despairs  that  seized  him  when  he  was  under  pressure 
and  could  not  find  what  he  wanted,  it  was  generally  to  her 
that  he  came  for  help  in  his  extremity. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Brown  continued  to  live  in  Dr.  Hoge's 
family  until  the  sale  of  the  Central  Presbyterian  in  1879, 
and  their  removal  to  Fredericksburg,  where,  before  long, 
Mrs.  Brown  entered  into  rest.^    Not  long  after  they  left.  Dr. 

'•  For  a  beautiful  tribute  to  Mrs.  Brown,  see  Dr.  Hoge's  address  on 
liis  fiftieth  anniversary,  Appendix,  page  476. 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  303 

George  Harris — Uncle  George,  as  the  children  called  him — 
a  dear  friend  and  faithful  elder,  took  his  place  at  the  table, 
which  he  kept  until  infirmity  confined  him  to  his  room.  It 
is  not  every  minister  that  has  a  quorum  of  session  at  every 
meal.  His  son  Moses  was  away  much  of  the  time,  at  college 
and  professional  schools  in  the  later  seventies  and  earlier 
eighties,  but  his  nephew,  Ernest  Marquess,  was  a  constant 
member  of  the  family.  His  brother's  children,  who  had 
lived  with  him  for  some  years,  had  long  been  gone;  Addison 
having  become  professor  of  Greek  at  Hampden-Sidney  Col- 
lege in  1872,  and  Elizabeth  Lacy  having  been  married  to  the 
Rev.  William  Irvine,  of  Kentucky,  in  18/3.  Such  was  the 
patriarchal  household  through  these  years  of  intensest  labor. 

Dr.  Hoge  returned  from  the  East  just  in  time  to  see  once 
more  the  honored  friend  of  his  youth.  Dr.  Plumer.  Troubles 
had  gathered  about  that  hoary  head,  and  to  Dr.  Hoge  he 
poured  forth  his  heart  as  to  none  other.  He  had  signed  his 
name  to  what  proved  to  be  the  last  letter  he  ever  wrote  him, 
when — feeling  that  the  tone  of  the  letter  was  too  sad  for  a 
trusting  child  of  God — he  added  the  postscript,  "Hallelujah, 
for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth."  His  death  severed 
for  Dr.  Hoge  one  of  the  strongest  links  that  bound  him  to 
the  past. 

And  other  links  were  to  be  severed  soon.  In  December, 
1882,  Judge  Ould  was  taken.  In  his  noble  funeral  discourse, 
Dr.  Hoge  said : 

I  have  known  him  as  a  student  of  theology,  taking  it  up 
after  his  conversion  as  he  would  a  new  treatise  on  science 
or  international  law,  and  mastering  it  as  few  divines  in  the 
pulpit  have  done ;  known  him  as  a  student  of  polemics  and 
Church  government,  coming  to  an  unalterable  conclusion  as 
to  the  scriptural  origin  of  the  Creeds  and  Confessions  of 
the  Church  of  his  choice ;  known  him  in  the  humble,  but,  in 
his  own  esteem,  the  honored  office  of  superintendent  of  a 
mission  Sunday-school  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city;  known 
him  as  the  teacher  of  a  Bible-class,  for  which  he  began  to 
prepare  his  lectures  on  Monday  morning  lest  the  pressure 


304  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

of  professional  duties  should  hinder  him  at  the  close  of  the 
week  ;  known  him  as  an  officer-bearer  in  the  church,  giving 
his  pastor  all  the  hearty  cooperation,  encouragement  and 
support  which  a  man  of  his  clear  judgment  and  generous 
nature  was  so  capable  of  rendering;  known  him  as  a  de- 
vout and  regular  attendant  on  all  the  services  of  the  church 
on  the  Sabbath  and  during  the  week,  in  heat  and  cold,  in 
sunshine  and  storm,  even  when  failing  health  rendered  such 
regular  attendance  difficult  and  hazardous ;  known  him  as 
the  friend  of  the  poor  and  the  generous  contributor  to  all 
the  enterprises  of  Christian  benevolence ;  known  him  as  a 
member  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  always  heard  with  defer- 
ence when  he  spoke  because  of  his  familiarity  with  ecclesi- 
astical law,  and  his  fair,  lucid  and  conciliating  style  of 
discussion  ;  known  him  as  a  friend  congenial  to  my  intellect 
and  heart,  loyal,  true  and  loving ;  known  him  as  an  appre- 
ciative hearer,  never  listening  critically,  captiously  or 
distrustfully,  but  giving  me  his  fullest  sympathy  and  con- 
fidence, so  that  he  was  to  me  (none  of  you  will  misunder- 
stand what  I  mean),  as  it  were,  an  audience  in  himself; 
and  now  that  I  shall  no  more  see  him  coming  with  slow 
and  measured  step  along  that  aisle,  no  more  look  upon  his 
calm  and  placid  face,  full  of  light  and  loving-kindness,  I 
feel  that  this  church  hereafter  cannot  be  to  me  all  that  it 
has  been  since  1870. 

I  hasten  to  the  close.  I  was  absent  from  the  city  when 
the  mortal  chill  seized  him.  When  I  entered  his  chamber 
on  my  return  and  expressed  my  concern  at  finding  him  so 
ill,  he  smiled  and  quietly  said,  "You  came  near  losing  one 
of  your  elders  last  night."  Little  did  I  think,  when  I 
kneeled  and  commended  him  to  God,  that  this  was  my  last 
interview.  The  next  morning  I  lost  him — oh !  no,  not  that, 
if  heaven  found  him,  and  if  while  walking  with  God,  he 
was  not,  because  God  took  him. 

A  week  or  two  afterwards  Governor  Randolph  wrote  Dr. 
Hoge  for  a  copy  of  this  discourse,  and  closed  his  letter : 

I  am  very  busy  just  now,  but  not  too  much  so  to  have 
you  and  yours  in  my  most  affectionate  remembrance,  and 
to  hope  to  be  able,  these  many  and  many  times  to  come,  to 
write  to  you  and,  as  now,  be  of  honest  heart  in  saying  I  am 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  305 

grateful  to  God  for  home  and  wife,  and  children  and  grand- 
child, and  dear  friends,  and  for  faith  and  hope — "and  yet 
more."  Affectionately  yours, 

Theo.  F.  Randolph. 

It  was  his  last  letter  to  his  friend.  Shortly  afterwards  he 
was  taken — "in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye" — to 
know  more  fully  the  meaning  of  those  last  words,  "And  yet 
more." 

Of  this  sorrow  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf : 

You  can  well  appreciate  the  great,  privation  Bessie  has 
suffered.  During  the  last  twelve  years  Governor  Randolph 
paid  us  more  than  fifty  visits,  and  not  a  fortnight  ever 
passed  without  his  sending  her  letters,  magazines,  flowers, 
or  some  reminder  of  his  thoughtful  and  loving  regard  for 
her.  Compelled  as  she  is,  by  separation  from  all  outward 
activities  and  enjoyments,  to  lead  an  interior  life,  the  world 
of  the  affections  is  almost  her  only  world,  and  whatever 
made  that  world  richer  to  her  was  the  most  prized,  and  all 
that  makes  it  poorer  is  most  deplored.  At  first,  she  seemed 
to  be  overwhelmed  by  her  sorrow,  but  submissive,  trustful 
and  brave  as  she  is,  she  soon  regained  her  self-control,  and 
now  suffers  "and  makes  no  sign." 

Near  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf,  when  she 
had  a  threat  of  breaking  down : 

I  have  already  outlived  so  many  of  my  early  and  dear 
friends  that  I  am  becoming  more  impressed  with  the  pil- 
griuiage  aspect  of  life,  though  I  cannot  call  myself  a 
stranger,  in  the  midst  of  the  crowds  who  know  me ;  but 
much  of  the  brightness  and  sweetness  of  life  has  been 
carried  away  with  those  who  have  gone  from  me.  I  cling 
to  those  who  remain,  and  would  not  willingly  surrender 
them  to  anything  but  heaven. 

But  eternity  is  so  long  that  it  can  afford  to  spare  for  a 
great  while  those  who  are  useful  and  needed  here,  and  I 
hope  I  may  count  on  the  genial  warmth  of  spring  and  the 
reviving  glow  of  summer  to  reanimate  and  invigorate  you, 
and  restore  you  at  least  to  the  health  of  twenty  years  ago. 
I  wish  this  for  my  sake,  for  your  father's  sake,  for  the  sake 
of  all  who  love  you. 


3o6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  this  decade  he  had  written  her : 

Richmond, y^^wwar)' I,  i8Si. 

My  Dear  Sister:  This  is  the  first  time  I  have  written 
1881. 

I  told  Bessie  last  night  that  I  meant  to  dedicate  the  day 
and  year  to  you  in  that  manner ;  and  I  expect  to  associate 
you  with  all  its  coming  history.  There  are  a  few  persons 
with  whom  I  am  always  doing  this. 

I  keep  myself  surrounded  with  an  invisible,  imaginary 
circle,  with  whom  I  keep  up  a  mental  communion. 

During  my  Eastern  travel,  especially  while  riding  alone 
through  Palestine  and  along  the  silent  Phoenician  shore 
(which  Gibbon  says  once  resounded  with  "the  world's  de- 
bate"), I  often  entertained  myself  with  colloquies  of  that 
character.  No  matter  what  I  hear  or  enjoy,  I  have  fallen 
into  the  habit  of  saying  to  myself,  how  would  this  influence 
or  that  affect  this  and  that  friend,  so  that  while  I  am  in  one 
sense  always  in  the  crowd,  I  am  really  living  for  (and 
with)  a  few  persons,  one  of  them  being  yourself. 

Before  that  decade  was  over,  first  her  venerable  father, 

and,  a  little  after,  she  herself,  had  joined — 

"the  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence." 

Of  this  constantly  growing  multitude  he  wrote  to  his 
friend,  Mr.  Osborne: 

My  Dear  Mr.  Osborne  :  I  could  not  read  your  letter  of 
March  i6th  or  that  which  followed  it  without  being  deeply 
moved  and  gratified  by  every  expression  of  your  regard  for 
me. 

Your  last  letter,  especially,  is  so  full  of  kind  and  gene- 
rous appreciation  that  I  must  preserve  it  among  the 
treasures  which  are  not  to  be  misplaced  or  destroyed  during 
my  life-time. 

I  was  particularly  impressed  by  your  minute  and  interest- 
ing reminiscences  of  Dr.  Plumer,  going  back  to  your  child- 
hood, and  imprinted  on  your  memory,  as  in  a  photograph 
a  noble  oak  is  sometimes  pictured  so  as  to  present  not  only 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  307 

the  massive  trunk  and  spreading  branches,  but  the  smallest 
twigs  and  leaves. 

Ah,  the  changes  since  you  saw  me  with  my  young  wife 
at  Boyden's  Hotel,  and  since  Alexander  Martin  stood  be- 
fore me  with  Miss  Macon  at  his  side!  Changes  in  the 
domestic,  social,  political,  and  even  religious,  world,  so 
great,  so  unlooked-for  that  I  often  feel  as  if  I  were  living 
on  another  planet.  My  church  is  still  crowded  with  hearers 
twice  every  Sunday,  but  I  have  two  churches  now,  one  on 
earth  and  one  in  heaven,  and  the  members  of  the  latter  are 
now  by  far  the  most  numerous.  Could  they  be  summoned 
back  to  earth,  no  building  in  the  city  would  contain  them. 

This  Mr.  Osborne  was  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  singu- 
lar attachment  of  his  friends.  A  voluntary  exile  from  his 
own  land  and  people,  for  years  he  kept  even  his  European 
address  a  secret  from  all  but  Dr.  Hoge.  To  him  he  confided 
all,  and  for  him,  when  abroad,  he  would  make  any  sacrifice 
to  add  to  his  pleasure  or  to  the  attainment  of  his  objects. 

But  this  was  to  be  a  chapter  of  work,  and  while — 
"  Friend  after  friend  departs." 

his  mission  was  to — 

"  Act,  act  in  the  living  present." 

To  attempt  even  to  summarize  the  labors  of  this  time 
would  be  to  turn  these  pages  into  a  mere  catalogue,  which, 
at  best,  would  be  incomplete.  The  period  is  characterized  by 
the  deepening  and  broadening  of  his  work  at  home,  and  by 
the  increased  and  multifarious  demands  for  service  abroad. 

The  work  of  his  own  church  went  on  like  a  steady  stream, 
full  and  strong.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  its  work  was 
maintained  merely  by  the  power  of  his  preaching.  He 
neglected  no  proper  means  for  strengthening  his  hold 
upon  those  whom  his  preaching  attracted.  Dr.  F.  C. 
Walker,  U.  S.  A.,  writes  of  the  remarkable  hold  he  gained 
upon  the  medical  students.  He  had  attended  his  church 
but  a  few  times,  when,  returning  to  his  room  from  his 
classes,  he  found  a  deacon  of  Dr.  Hoge's  church  awaiting 


3o8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

him  with  a  message  of  welcome  from  the  pastor  and  a 
promise  that  he  himself  would  call  at  the  earliest  opportu- 
nity. He  said  the  effect  on  him  was  overwhelming:  "The 
idea  that  Dr.  Hoge,  whose  name  was  a  synonym  for  great- 
ness, should  come  to  see  me  seemed  well-nigh  incredible." 
Speaking  of  it  to  his  fellow-students,  he  found  that  "ever}'' 
one  who  had  attended  the  church  had  been  waited  on  in  like 
manner." 

Dr.  Hoge  was  not  a  systematic  pastor ;  he  was  not  syste- 
matic in  anything;  but  he  more  than  made  up  for  the  lack 
of  system  by  certain  other  qualities.  First,  he  saw  every- 
thing. A  face  did  not  appear  in  his  congregation  more  than 
once  or  twice  before  he  singled  it  out.  Second,  his  visits  to 
an  individual,  while  necessarily  infrequent,  were  effective. 
When  he  showed  a  courtesy,  he  did  it  in  a  way  that  made 
an  impression.  One  might  have  been  suffering  from  a  feel- 
ing of  neglect,  when  unexpectedly  he  paid  some  attention  of 
so  marked  a  character  that  one  was  almost  dazzled  by  it; 
and  never  forgot  it.  He  had  a  wonderful  way  of  thinking 
of  happy  things  to  do  that  would  require  little  extra  time; 
as,  when  he  had  a  distant  visit  to  pay,  he  would  drive  by  and 
pick  up  some  overworked  woman  or  ansemic  girl,  and  give 
her  a  breath  of  fresh  air  while  he  discharged  the  other  duty ; 
but  the  most  important  faculty  of  all  was  his  ability  to  set 
others  to  work.  He  asked  service  of  others  in  a  way  that 
made  them  feel  it  was  a  favor  conferred.  There  were  many 
who  would  be  happier  all  the  week  if  he  asked  them  to  do 
some  errand — in  itself,  perhaps,  disagreeable.  There  was 
no  toil  that  some  of  his  godly  women  shrank  from  if  it  would 
help  on  his  work  and  win  his  approval.  The  members  of  the 
official  boards  of  the  church  were  punctilious  in  their  fidelity 
to  all  that  was  expected  of  them.  The  Ladies'  Benevolent 
Society  was  one  of  the  most  efficient  and  successful  organiza- 
tions in  any  church,  shouldering  colossal  undertakings  and 
carrying  them  through  with  unwavering  patience ;  and  in  all 
the  departments  of  the  church,   Sunday-school,   children's 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  309 

societies  and  other  agencies,  the  work  was  so  organized  that 
he  had  no  lesponsibiHty  for  it,  yet  he  was  felt  to  be  the  in- 
spiration of  the  whole. 

But  work  that  others  could  not  do,  he  did  with  his  whole 
heart.  In  affliction,  and  trouble  of  all  kinds,  he  left  nothing 
undone  that  could  soothe,  or  help,  or  sustain ;  and,  doubtless, 
much  of  the  tenderness  of  his  preaching  was  gained  in  that 
sympathetic  personal  contact  with  souls  in  trouble.  In  no- 
thing was  his  ministry  more  blessed  than  as  a  ministry  of 
comfort. 

Yet  he  did  not  hesitate  to  perform  those  unpleasant  duties 
that  fall  to  a  minister's  lot — of  which  the  following  letter 
is  an  illustration : 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  think  I  ought  to  know,  from  yourself, 
whether  you  have  any  definite  plan  or  purpose  with  regard 
to  your  connection  with  our  church. 

The  matter  has  now  drifted  along  several  years  without 
seeming  to  come  to  any  definite  conclusion,  and  you  are 
aware  that  there  is  a  solemn  obligation  resting  on  every 
member  to  attend  the  meetings  and  sacraments  of  the 
church  to  which  he  belongs,  and  that  the  neglect  to  do  so 
cannot  be  perpetually  overlooked. 

I  am  not  aware  that  I  have  failed  to  discharge  the  duties 
I  owe  to  you  and  to  your  household,  but  I  would  be  an  un- 
faithful pastor  if  I  did  not  call  your  attention  to  the  possible 
injury  you  are  doing  to  yourself  and  to  your  family  by 
your  neglect  of  church  ordinances. 

I  have  the  very  highest  appreciation  of  Mrs.  ,  and 

feel  a  deep  interest  in  the  future  of  your  children. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  you  would  add  to  her  happiness 
were  you  to  come  with  her  to  the  house  of  God,  which  she 
loves  so  much. 

Life  is  short  and  uncertain,  and  were  you  to  survive  her, 
I  am  sure  you  would  be  filled  with  bitter  regrets  at  having 
withheld  from  her  one  of  the  comforts  which  I  think  she 
would  dearly  prize — that  of  your  presence  and  union  with 
her  in  the  worship  of  God. 

I  know,  too,  that  your  course  will  be  injurious  to  the 
spiritual  interests  of  your  children.     You  cannot  expect 


3IO  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

them  to  be  regular,  or  to  form  a  deep  attachment  to  the 
church  of  which  you  are  a  member,  but  which  you  do  not 
attend. 

It  is  my  duty  to  ask  you  to  give  this  subject  a  new  and 
prayerful  consideration,  as  in  the  sight  of  God  and  with 
reference  to  the  account  you  are  finally  to  render  to  him. 

I  do  not  write  this  letter  in  a  spirit  of  unkindness  or 
rebuke,  but  with  a  sincere  regard  for  your  happiness  and 
usefulness.  Yours  faithfully, 

Moses  D.  Hoge. 

Sometimes  he  wrote  a  pastoral  letter  to  the  whole  congre- 
gation to  awaken  them  to  a  sense  of  individual  responsibility^ 
and  to  keep  them  informed  as  to  the  welfare  and  work  of  the 
church. 

Another  beautiful  custom,  for  the  deepening  of  this 
sense  of  responsibility,  was  the  selection  of  a  motto  text  for 
each  year,  which  would  be  the  subject  of  his  New  Year's 
sermon.    He  speaks  of  this  in  one  of  his  letters : 

I  wish  you  could  have  been  with  us  yesterday.  On  the 
first  Sunday  of  each  year  I  take  a  text  which  I  propose  as 
a  motto  for  the  people  that  year.  Last  year  it  was,  "Let  us 
not  be  weary  in  well  doing,  for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap, 
if  we  faint  not." 

Yesterday  it  was  Joshua's  resolution,  "As  for  me  and 
my  house  we  will  serve  the  Lord,"  giving  me  an  opportu- 
nity of  delivering  a  discourse  on  family  religion.  I  was 
glad  to  have  a  day  so  bright  and  balmy,  and  to  have  two 
grand  congregations  to  begin  the  year  with. 

There  was  scarcely  a  communion  season  in  which  there 
were  not  some  to  come  forward  and  confess  Christ  under 
his  preaching;  but  there  were  times  when  the  solemn  hush 
or  the  audible  weeping  would  show  that  eternal  things  were 
taking  a  deeper  hold  than  usual  upon  the  heart.  At  such 
times  he  would  direct  his  appeal  more  searchingly  to  the 
impenitent,  the  doubting,  and  the  fearful;  he  would  name 
times  for  personal  conversation  with  himself;  he  would 
put  parents  and  friends  and  Sabbath-school  teachers  on  the 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  311 

watch  for  evidences  of  tenderness  on  spiritual  subjects;  he 
would  seek  out  those  that  were  touched — 

"  With  some  clear,  winning  word  of  love ;  " 

or,  if  he  thought  best,  would  hold  some  special  services  for 
prayer,  awakening,  or  instruction.  At  such  seasons  often 
the  whole  of  the  ample  space  before  the  pulpit  would  be 
filled  with  those  standing  up  to  take  the  vows  of  God  upon 
them. 

In  this  work  he  rarely  sought  help.  When  he  did,  it  was 
from  some  trusted  personal  friend  to  preach  a  special  ser- 
mon. In  answer  to  an  offer  of  professional  assistance,  he 
wrote : 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  received  your  fraternal 
letter  of  the  2d  instant,  and  would  say  in  reply  that  I  do  not 
think  the  way  will  be  open  for  such  meetings  as  you  pro- 
pose to  hold  in  Richmond. 

The  city  is  well  supplied  with  pastors  and  efficient  lay- 
men, well  acquainted  with  the  field,  and  ready  for  any 
active  service. 

There  are  many  regions  in  the  South,  as  well  as  in  every 
part  of  the  country,  where  the  labors  of  self-denying  evan- 
gelists might  well  be  bestowed. 

I  have  been  the  pastor  of  the  church  to  which  I  minister 
ever  since  its  organization,  and  I  have  never  deemed  it 
expedient  to  resort  to  extraneous  aid,  but  have  preferred 
to  rely  on  the  regular  services  of  the  Sabbath,  with  such 
meetings  during  the  week  as  seemed  at  the  time  to  be  de- 
sirable. These  meetings  I  have  usually  conducted  myself. 
Very  truly  yours,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

But  while  this  strong  work  was  sustained  at  the  centre, 
his  church  was  throwing  out  branches  to  the  right  hand  and 
tiie  left. 

For  many  years  the  church  had  sustained  a  mission  in  the 
western  end  of  the  city.    Dr.  Hoge  thus  described  its  origin : 

The  most  difficult  labor  of  my  life  was  in  the  first  move- 
ment for  sending  out  a  colony  in  the  west  end  of  the  city. 


312  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

It  began  with  the  gathering  of  a  Sunday-school,  of  which 
the  late  Judge  Ould  was  superintendent,  and  in  holding  a 
night  service  in  a  gloomy  building  called  Elba,  which 
stood  in  an  old  field,  and  which  was  difficult  of  approach. 
A  good  name  for  it  would  have  been  Bleak  House.  During 
the  winter  we  labored  there,  the  weather  was  fearful.  I 
frequently  said  to  my  family  on  returning  from  the  mission 
that  there  was  consolation  in  the  knowledge  that  the  next 
time  I  had  to  visit  the  place  there  could  not  be  as  bad  a 
storm;  but  when  the  next  night  came  the  weather  would 
be  worse  than  ever.  One  night,  as  I  was  driving  through 
the  storm,  I  was  caught  in  a  deep  snow-drift,  and  had  to 
be  extricated  by  the  help  of  a  passing  colored  man. 

There  was  a  class  in  the  Sunday-school  composed  of  the 
worst  boys  I  ever  saw.  Paul  says  he  fought  with  beasts  at 
Ephesus.  I  think  I  would  rather  have  met  the  enemies 
Paul  encountered  than  these  boys.  Yet,  by  infinite  pa- 
tience, we  conquered,  and  the  class,  instead  of  consuming 
the  time  in  yelling  at  one  another,  fighting  among  them- 
selves, and  running  in  and  out,  became  quiet,  orderly  and 
attentive. 

In  due  time  the  mission  was  housed  in  a  neat  brick  chapel, 
costing  about  five  thousand  dollars,  half  of  which  was  the 
gift  of  Mr.  James  McDowell.  There  the  Sunday-school 
flourished  for  a  number  of  years  under  the  active  leadership 
of  the  young  people  of  Dr.  Hoge's  church. 

In  the  spring  of  1882  the  session  invited  Dr.  Hoge's 
nephew,  Peyton  H.  Hoge,  who  had  just  graduated  from 
Union  Seminary,  to  take  charge  of  the  work.  In  June  a 
church  was  organized,  which  called  Mr.  Hoge  to  be  its 
pastor.  In  October  he  was  ordained.  Dr.  Hoge  both  preach- 
ing the  ordination  sermon  and  delivering  the  charge  to  the 
pastor.  In  every  way  the  occasion  moved  Dr.  Hoge's 
deepest  emotions.  It  recalled  his  own  ordination  as  the 
pastor  of  a  new  church  in  the  same  city ;  it  fulfilled  his  long- 
cherished  desire  to  be  the  founder  of  two  churches  in  Rich- 
mond :  "With  my  staff  I  crossed  over  this  Jordan,  and  now  I 
am  become  two  bands !"     More  than  all,  the  memory  of  his 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  313 

brother  filled  his  heart.  Perhaps  not  more  than  all :  perhaps 
the  vision  of  his  own  earnest-faced  boy  came  before  him,  of 
whom  he  had  written  his  brother,  "May  we  not  one  day  see 
your  Peyton  and  my  Lacy  sit  in  the  pulpit  together,  as  you 
and  I  have  done?"  Under  the  influence  of  all  these  mem- 
ories and  aspirations — fulfilled  and  unfulfilled — he  rose  to 
his  greatest  power,  preaching  one  of  the  noblest  sermons  of 
his  life  on  the  work  of  the  gospel  preacher,  and  delivering 
one  of  the  most  solemn  and  tender  charges  a  young  minister 
ever  received. 

The  church  grew,  but  not  according  to  expectations.  The 
removal  of  the  First  Church  to  its  vicinity  retarded  its 
growth,  and  in  course  of  time,  under  the  ministry  of  Rev. 
J.  C.  Stewart,  it  was  found  necessary  to  remove  it  from 
Grace  street  to  Park  avenue.  The  congregation  is  still  not 
large,  but  it  is  one  of  the  best  organized  and  most  active 
churches  in  the  city.  It  was  at  first  called  the  Fourth  Pres- 
byterian Church,  but  after  its  removal,  the  Church  of  the 
Covenant. 

His  next  effort  in  church  extension  met  with  more  im- 
mediate success.  In  January,  1885,  Mr.  D.  L.  Moody  held 
a  ten-days'  meeting  in  the  Armory  Hall.  Dr.  Hoge  gave 
his  hearty  cooperation,  making  a  broad  distinction  between 
a  man  evidently  marked  of  God  to  do  a  special  work  like  this, 
and  the  multitudes  of  imitators  who,  without  special  quali- 
fication, thrust  themselves  in  to  build  on  other  men's  founda- 
tions and  to  reap  where  others  had  sown.  God's  power  and 
presence  were  shown  mightily,  and  great  throngs  attended — 
many  from  the  classes  that  never  entered  a  church.  The  last 
night  was  a  meeting  for  men  only — women  being  excluded 
only  that  the  men,  who  could  not  come  in  the  day,  might 
have  a  chance.  The  hall  was  packed.  Dr.  Hoge  was  not 
present ;  it  was  the  night  of  his  prayer-meeting ;  but  he  sent 
a  notice  that  on  the  following  Sunday  he  would  preach 
at  night  in  the  Old  Market  Hall.  Mr.  Moody  read  the 
notice,  with  a  word  or  two  of  thankfulness  that  such  a 


314  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

work  was  to  be  undertaken,  and  of  prayer  for  God's  blessing- 
upon  it. 

Dr.  Hoge  had  long  contemplated  such  a  step,  but  he  saw 
that  this  was  the  time  to  strike.  He  wrote  a  note  to  the 
Mayor,  asking  the  use  of  the  hall,  and  on  securing  it  sent  the 
notice.  Between  Wednesday  and  Sunday  an  army  of  scrub- 
bers and  carpenters  had  to  get  the  hall  into  condition,  for  it 
had  long  been  unused ;  a  choir  had  to  be  organized  and  va- 
rious assistants  gotten  together.  Sunday  night  came  and  the 
hall  was  filled ;  it  held  over  a  thousand.  In  a  Sunday  or  two 
more  a  Sunday-school  was  organized  and  faithful  fellow- 
workers,  from  his  own  and  other  churches,  labored  with  him 
through  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold.  Before  the  first 
spring  was  over  the  Chief  of  Police  and  the  neighboring 
police  justices  pronounced  this  mission  of  more  value  for 
keeping  order  in  that  part  of  the  city  than  all  the  police  force. 
Year  after  year  he  kept  up  this  work,  preaching  in  his  church- 
morning  and  afternoon,  and  at  the  Old  Market  at  night. 
His  sermons  there  were  wholly  different  from  those  preached 
in  his  church,  and  as  carefully  prepared.  They  were  taken 
down  and  published  each  week  in  the  city  papers.  He  was. 
urged  to  publish  them  in  a  volume,  but  he  never  found  the 
time  to  give  them  the  necessary  revision.  Even  yet  the  "Old 
Market  Pulpit"  would  make  a  most  valuable  volume  of 
practical  sermons. 

In  time  a  pastor  was  needed  for  the  congregation  that  was. 
gathered.  The  Rev.  L.  B.  Turnbull,  now  of  Durham,  N.  C, 
was  for  a  number  of  years  their  indefatigable  and  successful 
minister,  and  has  been  succeeded  by  their  present  devoted 
pastor,  the  Rev.  James  E.  Cook,  who  grew  up  in  Dr.  Hoge's 
church. 

The  Old  Market  Hall  is  still  used  on  Sunday  evenings  for 
preaching  to  "them  that  are  without,"  but  the  congregation 
has  a  very  attractive  and  suitable  house  of  worship,  that  was. 
dedicated  by  Dr.  Hoge  twelve  years  after  he  began  the  work. 
In  his  dedication  sermon  he  said,  "The  humblest  spire  that 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  315 

points  to  heaven  suggests  more  than  all  the  monuments 
reared  to  earthly  fame  and  glory."  Next  to  his  own  church, 
it  is  his  best  monument.  It  was  named  even  in  his  life-time 
the  Hoge  Memorial. 

The  fame  of  this  work  went  far,  for  it  was  a  unique  ex- 
periment in  the  problem  of  city  evangelization.  It  was 
doubtless  on  this  account  that  the  subject  of  city  evangeliza- 
tion was  assigned  him  at  the  Presbyterian  centennial ;  and  in 
that  great  throng  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  the  moment 
he  had  begun  the  sentence,  "The  best  plan  that  I  know  is  for 
some  city  pastor — "  the  applause  from  all  parts  of  the  house 
drowned  the  rest. 

While  engrossed  in  these  arduous  labors  at  home.  Dr. 
Hoge's  voice  and  pen  were  busied  in  various  labors  else- 
where. The  congregation  could  afford  to  be  generous  in 
giving  him  up  for  service  abroad  since  they  were  now  sat- 
isfied that  he  would  remain  with  them  for  life.  Their  last 
agony  of  suspense  had  been  toward  the  close  of  the  last 
decade,  when  he  had  received  an  urgent  and  persistent  call 
from  the  Second  Church,  Philadelphia.^ 

On  July  2,  1 88 1,  the  assassination  of  President  Garfield 
sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  country.  At  a  popular 
meeting  held  in  Richmond,  Dr.  Hoge  made  the  remarkable 
address  that  is  printed  in  the  Appendix.  It  was  probably 
some  knowledge  of  this  address  that  led  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Church  in  New  York  to  seek  his  services,  in  the  absence  of 
Dr.  Hall,  on  the  Day  of  Humiliation  and  Prayer  appointed 
by  President  Arthur.  His  sermon  is  thus  described  in  one 
of  the  city  papers  : 

It  was  no  doubt  owing  to  the  little  notoriety  given  to  the 
fact  that  the  Rev.  Moses  D.  Hoge,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  was 
to  officiate  in  the  memorial  services  last  Monday  that  no 
report  of  his  remarkable  discourse  was  given  in  the  morn- 

'The  correspondence  was  conducted  by  Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew,  his 
beloved  and  devoted  friend,  to  whose  skilful  surge'-y  he  was  afterwards 
indebted  for  the  partial  restoration  of  his  daughter's  health. 


5i6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

ing  papers.  As  is  well  known,  Dr.  Hoge  is  the  leading 
clergyman  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  South.  His  fervid 
eloquence  and  powerful  influence  stood  the  defunct  Con- 
federacy in  good  stead  in  many  a  dark  day  of  its  troubled 
history.  It  was  a  bold  move,  therefore,  for  the  great, 
wealthy  and  conservative  congregation  presided  over  by 
Dr.  John  Hall  to  invite  him  to  lead  them  in  their  memorial 
services  for  the  dead  President.  An  immense  congregation 
was  gathered,  the  beautiful  church  was  heavily  draped, 
and  after  a  solemn  voluntary  on  the  noble  organ.  Dr.  Hoge 
came  forward  to  the  front  of  the  platform.  His  very  mien 
attracts  attention  anywhere.  Standing  for  a  moment  silent, 
he  began  his  remarkable  discourse  with  the  following 
words :  "I  suppose  there  is  not  a  single  person  in  this  great 
assembly  who  has  not  been  called  to  watch  at  the  bedside 
of  one  very  ill  and  very  dear  to  the  watcher.  I  will  not 
attempt  to  describe  what  the  feelings  are  on  such  an  occa- 
sion ;  but  here  we  have  the  whole  country,  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco,  and  from  the  Gulf  to  Canada,  watching 
at  the  bedside  of  a  single  individual  with  feelings  of  grief 
too  deep  for  utterance."  And  from  this  the  speaker  entered 
upon  an  oration,  which,  for  ability,  eloquence  and  pathos, 
has  seldom  been  equalled  in  this  city.  It  was  our  President, 
our  friend ;  and  when  he  spoke  of  the  grief  of  the  "solid 
South,"  "not  the  solid  South  of  the  politicians,"  but  the 
deep  grief  of  the  whole  people  of  that  section,  the  effect 
was  marvellous.  It  is  to  be  hoped  this  grand  discourse  will 
be  published  by  the  church  in  which  it  was  spoken. 

It  v^'^as  never  published  as  a  w^hole,  but  the  concluding 
paragraphs  were  written  out  for  one  of  the  religious  papers : 

Our  present  sorrow  shows  how  God,  in  his  providence, 
can  arrest  the  attention  of  the  world,  and  make  the  heart 
of  humanity  tender,  and  so  cause  all  to  feel  the  dependence 
of  man  upon  man,  of  State  upon  State,  and  nation  upon 
nation.  The  news  of  the  attempt  of  the  assassin  was 
flashed  over  the  world ;  and  then  across  all  continents,  and 
under  all  seas  came  electric  messages  of  sympathy  and 
condolence — China  and  Japan  uniting  with  the  states  of 
Europe;  paganism  and  Mohammedanism  joining  with  all 
Christendom  in  the  expression  of  a  common  sorrow.    Thus 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  317 

God  makes  the  very  wounds  of  humanity  the  fountains 
from  which  issue  the  tenderest  sympathies  and  the  sweetest 
charities  which  bring  comfort  to  the  suffering,  and  which, 
at  the  same  time,  make  the  whole  world  akin  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  common  interests  and  interdependence. 

More  practically  important  to  us  is  the  fact  that  the  great 
bereavement  we  commemorate  to-day  has  hushed  the  voice 
of  party  clamor,  and  at  once  rebuked  and  silenced  the 
discord  of  sectional  animosity. 

Death  is  the  great  reconciler.  A  Federal  officer  was 
mortally  wounded  on  one  of  the  battle-fields  of  Virginia. 
As  he  lay  upon  the  ground,  far  from  his  comrades,  con- 
scious that  his  end  was  near,  while  scattered  soldiers  of  the 
Confederate  army  went  swiftly  by,  he  called  to  an  infantry- 
man who  was  passing  the  spot,  and  asked  him  if  he  would 
offer  a  prayer  for  him.  The  man  replied,  "My  friend,  I 
am  sorry  I  cannot  comply  with  your  request.  I  have  never 
learned  to  pray  for  myself;"  but  he  did  what  he  could; 
he  moved  the  officer  into  the  shade,  put  something  under 
his  head,  gave  him  some  water  out  of  his  canteen,  and  then 
hurried  on.  Presently  a  dismounted  cavalryman,  who  had 
lost  his  horse,  came  by.  The  officer  called  to  him  and  made 
the  same  request,  "Won't  you  stop  and  say  a  prayer  for 
me?"  The  trooper  kneeled  down  at  the  side  of  the  dying 
man  and  commenced  a  prayer,  but  as  he  uttered  one  tender 
petition  after  another,  the  officer  used  the  little  strength 
that  remained  to  him  in  creeping  closer  and  closer,  until  he 
placed  both  arms  around  the  neck  of  the  petitioner,  and 
when  the  last  words  of  the  prayer  were  uttered,  he  was 
lying  dead  on  the  bosom  of  his  late  antagonist  in  battle,  but 
in  the  parting  hour  one  with  him  in  the  bonds  of  the  gospel, 
a  brother  in  Christ  Jesus — united  in  love  forever. 

Yes,  death  is  the  great  reconciler. 

I  am  here  to-day,  because,  while  making  a  brief  visit  to  a 
friend  in  an  adjoining  State,  taking  the  only  rest  I  have  had 
for  a  year,  an  invitation  came  from  the  officers  of  this 
church  urging  me  to  perform  this  sad  office  in  the  absence 
of  its  honored  pastor ;  and  I  stand  here  to  represent  the 
feelings  of  the  Southern  people,  whose  interests  and  whose 
sentiments  are  mine,  and  to  say  that  to-day  your  sorrow  is 
their  sorrow,  and  your  bereavement  theirs.  To-day  Rich- 
mond and  Augusta,  and  Charleston  and  Savannah,  and 


3i8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Mobile  and  New  Orleans,  unite  with  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Cincinnati  and  Chicago,  in  laying  their  im- 
mortelles on  the  tomb  of  the  dead  President.  To-day  there 
is  a  "solid  South,"  not  in  the  low  and  unfriendly  sense  in 
which  demagogues  use  the  phrase,  but  in  the  nobler  sense 
of  a  South  consolidated  by  a  common  sorrow ;  and  one 
with  you  in  the  determination  to  advance  the  prosperity, 
the  happiness  and  the  glory  of  the  Union,  and  that,  too, 
without  the  surrender  of  one  just  political  principle  hon- 
estly held  by  them.  This  is  the  day  for  the  inauguration  of 
a  new  era  of  harmony  and  true  unity.  The  great  calamity 
will  thus  be  overruled  to  the  good  of  the  whole  land. 

The  providences  of  God  sometimes  wear  a  frowning 
aspect  as  they  approach,  and  men's  hearts  grow  faint  with 
foreboding;  but  as  the  providence,  which  looked  like  a 
demon  of  darkness  as  it  drew  near,  is  passing  away,  it  turns 
and  looks  back  upon  us  with  a  face  sweet  and  bright  as  the 
face  of  an  angel  of  God.  So  now  the  angel  of  death  seems 
to  menace  the  land  over  which  he  is  casting  his  dark 
shadow,  but  lo !  as  we  look,  we  see  him  transfigured.  It  is 
an  angel  of  love,  dropping  peace  and  good-will  upon  the 
world. 

No  matter  what  the  occasion  or  the  audience,  Dr.  Hoge 
never  omitted  an  opportunity  of  putting  in  a  word  for  his 
beloved  South.  How  deftly  it  is  done  here — the  audience 
receiving  on  the  current  of  another  thought,  sympathetically, 
and  almost  unconsciously,  the  idea  of  the  Southern  soldier 
as  kind,  humane,  Christian.  Yet  the  sentiments  of  unity 
were  just  as  real;  he  sounded  the  same  note  in  Richmond 
as  in  New  York. 

In  1884  Dr.  Hoge  went  abroad  to  travel  with  his  oldest 
son,  who  had  been  pursuing  his  professional  studies  for  two 
years  in  Berlin.  He  also  paid  a  number  of  delightful  visits 
to  country  places  in  England,  visiting  relatives  of  friends 
and  members  of  his  church.  While  travelling  on  the  Conti- 
nent, he  looked  in  on  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  then  holding 
its  sessions  in  Copenhagen.  He  was  not  a  delegate,  but  had 
■attended  several  times,  when  one  night,  missing  his  way,  he 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  319 

•entered  by  a  door  that  opened  directly  upon  the  platform. 
He  was  at  once  accosted  by  Dr.  Schaff,  who  told  him  that 
he  had  been  looking  for  him  anxiously,  as  he  had  put  him  on 
the  programme  for  the  evening  to  fill  a  vacancy,  and  that 
he  would  come  on  in  fifteen  minutes.  He  replied  that  it  was 
preposterous  to  ask  a  man  to  address  such  an  audience  with- 
out preparation,  but  Dr.  Schaff  would  take  no  denial.  The 
subject  was  Family  Religion,  and  the  address  (which  is 
^iven  in  the  Appendix)  was  not  only  a  gem  of  graceful 
speech,  hut,  what  is  of  far  more  importance,  it  reached  the 
heart.  The  Crown  Princess,  who  was  present,  was  deeply 
afifected  by  his  remark,  "If  there  is  but  one  pious  person  in 
the  family,  let  that  one  be  the  mother."  The  next  day  she 
sent  for.  him,  and  took  counsel  with  him  concerning  the  re- 
ligious training  of  her  children. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  address  some  one  said  to  Dr. 
Schaff,  "That  was  a  very  successful  experiment,  but  a  very 
hazardous  one."    "I  knew  my  man,"  said  Dr.  Schaff. 

The  period  was  the  era  of  centennial  celebrations,  and  Dr. 
Hoge  had  his  full  share  of  such  addresses :  The  centennial  of 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  at  which  he  delivered  the 
Historical  Address;  of  Winchester  Presbytery,  which  had 
been  organized  in  the  church  founded  by  his  grandfather  in 
Shepherdstown,  where  the  celebration  was  held,  and  where 
lie  preached  the  memorial  sermon ;  of  the  Synod  of  Virginia, 
.at  the  organization  of  which  his  grandfather  preached  the 
opening  sermon,  and  he  the  centennial  discourse ;  the  Pres- 
byterian centennial  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  centennial  of 
Presbyterianism  in  Kentucky,  at  each  of  wdiich  he  delivered 
addresses. 

For  all  such  occasions  he  always  made  original  prepara- 
tion ;  hence  the  timeliness  and  fitness  of  all  his  performances. 
Nearly  all  of  these  addresses  were  published,  and  would 
make  quite  a  volume  if  collected.  His  discourse  at  Wash- 
ington and  Lee  gives  a  good  idea  of  his  work  upon  such  an 
occasion,  and  as  it  was  rewarded  with  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 


320  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

from  the  university,  a  brief  report,  published  in  the  press  at 
the  time,  will  not  be  without  interest : 

Dr.  Hoge  announced  as  his  subject  "The  Memories, 
Hopes  and  Duties  of  the  Hour,"  and  after  a  graceful  pre- 
face, he  stated  clearly  the  two  methods  of  history — "one  a 
chronicle  of  famous  men  who  have  ruled  their  fellows  by 
force,  or  by  ideas,  or  by  ethical  systems ;  a  record  of  battles 
and  sieges,  a  portraiture  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  kingdoms 
and  confederacies,  an  account  of  great  charters  and  declara- 
tions of  rights,  of  political  coalitions  and  ecclesiastical 
organizations" — in  a  word,  the  history  of  events ;  the  other 
department  of  history,  and  the  nobler  department — that 
which  deals  with  "the  causes  which  have  led  to  the  events." 
The  latter  method  "traces  the  development  of  principles 
from  their  most  germinal  beginnings  until  they  find  expres- 
sions in  free  constitutions."  .  .  .  "It  reveals  the  founda- 
tions on  which  strong  and  just  governments  are  based,  and 
the  influences  which  determine  the  decline  and  fall  of  such 
as  are  not  fitted  to  survive." 

It  was  the  philosophy  of  history — the  causes  which 
developed  events — that  Dr.  Hoge  discussed,  and  in  connec- 
tion, of  course,  with  the  character  of  the  people  who  inhabit 
the  Rockbridge  section,  and  in  connection  more  especially 
with  the  educational  trend  of  Washington  and  Lee  Uni- 
versity. In  order  to  account  for  an  institution  like  Wash- 
ington and  Lee,  the  speaker  showed  how  important  it  was 
to  go  far  back  into  the  past  and  "ascertain  the  influences 
which  developed  its  growth  from  a  primary  school  to  a 
university."  The  three  great  influences,  he  claimed,  which 
develop  governments  are  to  be  found,  first,  in  the  word  of 
God,  "from  which  the  true  ideal  of  representative  govern- 
ment is  derived;"  second,  in  the  reformation  of  the  six- 
teenth century ;  and  third,  so  far  as  our  government  is 
concerned,  in  "the  peculiar  training  received  by  the  emi- 
grants to  these  shores  and  by  the  patriotic  sages  who  were 
most  influential  in  shaping  our  Constitution ;"  and  before 
beginning  a  splendid  review  of  the  civilization  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  literature  and  political  movements  of  the  seven- 
teenth century — the  century  of  Jamestown  and  of  Plymouth 
Rock — Dr.  Hoge  said : 

"  In  our  country  the  spirit  which  animated  the  colonies 


In  Labors  More  Abundant,  321 

in  their  struggle  for  independence,  and  which  led  to  the 
adoption  of  a  republican  form  of  government,  was  identical 
with  that  which  founded  and  fostered  our  older  schools 
of  learning,  and  could  I  establish  this  position,  I  would 
succeed  in  laying  before  you  what  your  invitation  dignifies 
with  the  title  of  an  historic  address." 

Dr.  Hoge  took  a  deep  interest  in  all  that  concerned  the 
preservation  of  American  history.  He  was  an  original 
member  of  the  Southern  Historical  Society,  and  helped  to 
organize  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society,  of  which  he 
M^as  one  of  the  vice-presidents.  He  contributed  to  the 
Schaff-Herzog  Encyclopedia  the  articles  ^n  Dr.  Plumer,  Dr. 
Thornwell,  and  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  committee  that  made  the  arrangements  and 
prepared  the  programme  for  the  Presbyterian  centennial, 
and  was  appointed  by  the  Assembly  one  of  the  speakers. 
Who  can  forget  his  reference  to  the  presence  of  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  nation,  "and  by  his  side,  his  chief  magis- 
trate, and  our  Republican  Queen,  who  rules  our  hearts  with 
as  absolute  a  sway  as  the  Queen  of  Great  Britain — with  the 
advantage  of  being  fifty  or  sixty  years  younger." 

But  Dr.  Hoge  had  more  important  work  in  hand  just  now 
than  the  commemoration  of  the  past — the  future  had  to  be 
formed  as  well.  The  Assembly  of  1887,  after  a  great  debate 
on  the  subject  of  organic  union  with  the  Northern  church, 
appointed  a  "committee  of  inquiry,"  to  meet  a  committee 
from  that  church  and  ascertain  how  far  the  obstacles  to 
union,  whether  organic  or  cooperative,  had  been  removed. 
Dr.  Hoge  was  named  first  on  this  committee,  after  the 
Moderator,  who  was  e.v  officio  chairman. 

The  committee  met  in  Louisville,  and  after  informal  and 
fraternal  joint  discussion,  proposed  certain  questions  to  the 
other  committee :  ( i )  As  to  the  existing  attitude  of  their 
church  on  political  deliverances  by  ecclesiastical  courts.  (2) 
The  policy  to  be  pursued  in  the  event  of  union  with  regard 
to  the  organization  of  the  colored  churches.     (3)  The  degree 


322  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

of  responsibility  of  the  boards  of  the  church  to  the  Assembly, 
and  (4)  The  soundness  of  the  body  in  the  Calvinistic 
doctrine  since  the  reunion  of  the  Old  and  New  School 
bodies. 

The  Northern  committee  met  again  in  Baltimore  to 
formulate  its  reply  to  these  inquiries,  and  the  Southern  com- 
mittee submitted  both  questions  and  answers  to  the  Assembly 
of  1888  without  recommendation.  That  Assembly  decided 
that,  while  the  obstacles  to  organic  union  were  not  removed, 
there  was  both  room  and  reason  for  a  much  closer  coopera- 
tion between  the  two  churches,  and  Dr.  Hoge  was  appointed 
chairman  of  a  committee  to  confer  with  a  similar  committee 
from  the  other  Assembly  on  plans  for  cooperative  union. 
The  joint  committees  met  first  in  New  York,  and  after  sev- 
eral da)^s'  conference  placed  the  different  topics  that  had 
emerged  in  the  discussion  in  the  hands  of  sub-committees, 
which  were  to  report  at  a  subsequent  meeting  in  Atlanta.  It 
v/as  found  that  in  foreign  missions  there  was  already  hearty 
cooperation,  it  being  the  policy  of  both  churches  to  unite 
with  all  other  Presbyterian  bodies  in  building  up  one  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  each  country  in  which  they  labored.  In 
publication  there  was  also  in  operation  a  practical  coopera- 
tion between  the  business  department  of  the  Northern  board 
snd  the  Southern  committee. 

In  home  missions  recommendations  were  adopted  looking 
to  the  removal  of  friction,  and  the  creation  of  a  more  cordial 
feeling. 

It  was  recommended  (i)  that  mission  funds  should  be 
expended  as  far  as  possible  in  different  fields  to  avoid  hurtful 
rivalry;  (2)  that  weak  churches  of  either  Assembly  might 
be  grouped  with  those  of  the  other,  and  consolidated,  if  possi- 
ble, by  mutual  agreement,  with  such  presbyterial  connection 
as  might  be  most  agreeable;  (3)  that  persons  removing 
from  one  Assembly  to  another  should  unite  with  the  churches 
of  the  other,  or,  if  in  sufficient  numbers  to  organize  a  new 
church,  should  form  such  organization  under  the  care  of  the 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  323 

presbytery  with  which  the  contiguous  churches  are  con- 
nected; and  (4)  that  where  large  bodies  of  both  Assembhes 
occupied  the  same  ground  they  should  cultivate  the  closest 
fraternal  relations. 

Doubtless,  neither  party  has  fully  lived  up  to  their  agree- 
ment, though  with  the  best  intentions  of  so  doing;  but  it 
was  much  to  have  the  standard  fixed  and  both  parties  com- 
mitted to  the  principle. 

The  cru.v  of  the  situation,  however,  was  in  the  relation  of 
the  two  churches  to  the  evangelization  of  the  colored  people. 
The  Southern  committee  was  anxious  to  consolidate  the 
work  of  the  two  churches,  both  Assemblies  laboring  to  build 
up  one  colored  Presbyterian  church  in  the  United  States,  as 
they  unite  to  build  up  one  church  in  Japan  or  Brazil.  This 
view  is  embodied  in  the  following  paper  found  in  Dr.  Hoge's 
handwriting,  hastily  pencilled  in  Atlanta : 

Among  the  subjects  demanding  attention  by  the  com- 
mittees of  the  General  Assemblies,  North  and  South,  now 
in  session  in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  there  is  none  invested  with 
graver  embarrassments,  or  which  awakens  deeper  solici- 
tude than  the  ecclesiastical  relations  under  which  the  col- 
ored people  of  our  land  may  attain  to  the  best  development 
of  Christian  life,  and  be  prepared  for  the  maintenance  of 
self-supporting  efficient  church  organizations  in  the  future. 

Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may  prevail  on  other 
points,  happily  all  good  men  agree  in  the  earnest  wish  to 
bring  the  colored  population  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  the 
truth.  To  see  them  truly  converted,  and  so  to  train  them 
that  their  highest  spiritual  interests  may  be  secured,  is  the 
one  paramount  wish  and  aim  of  all  who  appreciate  the 
blessings  of  salvation  for  themselves,  and  who  have  at  heart 
the  extension  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the  world. 

Many  of  the  colored  people  are  now  members  of  our 
respective  churches,  and  as  such  are  now  receiving  our 
fostering  care  and  require  our  unremitting  efforts  to  in- 
struct them,  not  only  in  the  fundamental  elements  of 
Christian  faith,  but  in  the  practical  duties  of  church  life, 
that,  grounded  in  the  truth  and  guarded  from  the  dangers 
of  a  more  emotional  religion,  and  from  the  superstition  and 


324  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

fanaticism  to  which  impressible  natures  are  especially- 
liable,  they  may  become  intelligent,  consistent  and  faithful 
followers  of  Christ. 

While  they  continue  under  our  care,  they  are  entitled  to 
all  the  watchful  guardianship  and  instruction  we  can  give 
them,  and  when  they  withdraw  from  ecclesiastical  connec- 
tion with  us,  our  responsibility  does  not  cease  as  long  as 
we  can  aid  them  by  our  counsel  and  pecuniary  contribu- 
tions, or  in  any  way  promote  their  spiritual  edification. 

As  divine  providence  gives  us  light,  we  learn  our  duty 
to  this  people.  We  cannot  fail  to  recognize  the  disposition 
they  exhibit  to  withdraw  from  the  religious  teachings  and 
ecclesiastical  control  of  the  white  race.  From  the  denomi- 
nations which  contain  the  overwhelming  majority  of  those 
of  them  who  are  professors  of  religion,  they  have  already 
separated  themselves,  and  the  tendency  is  equally  manifest 
in  the  denominations  with  which  a  smaller  number  of  them 
are  connected. 

It  is  the  common  opinion  of  those  who  have  most  care- 
fully watched  their  course  and  acquainted  themselves  with 
their  preferences,  that  in  the  near  future  they  will  all,  with 
few  exceptions,  prefer  a  separate  and  independent  ecclesi- 
astical organization. 

This  result  is  in  harmony  with  what  is  taking  place  in 
our  missionary  field,  in  which  native  converts  are  organ- 
ized into  distinct  churches  that  they  may  learn  self-reliance 
and,  by  their  own  experience  in  ecclesiastical  afifairs,  be 
trained  to  efficient  church  life. 

When  this  consummation  is  attained  by  the  colored 
churches  of  our  land,  we  secure  the  same  advantage  for 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the  complications  which 
must  be  disturbing  elements  while  they  retain  their  eccle- 
siastical connection  with  us. 

Contemplating  this  separation  as  the  issue  which  will  be 
best  for  both  races,  the  two  General  Assemblies  may  agree 
to  cooperate  in  organizing  them  into  a  separate  Presbyte- 
rian Church.  To  this  end  all  the  churches,  presbyteries 
and  synods  should  be  set  off  as  fast  as  providence  may  open 
the  way,  from  the  bodies  with  which  they  are  now  con- 
nected, under  one  General  Assembly,  with  such  boundaries 
as  may  be  most  convenient ;  to  be  governed  by  the  general 
rules  and  principles  common  to  the  two  Assemblies,  with 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  325 

such  modification  of  details  as  may  be  adopted  by  the 
new  Assembly.  We  can  cooperate  in  giving  such  gen- 
eral aid,  material  and  spiritual,  to  the  new  organiza- 
tion, under  regulations  which  may  hereafter  be  deter- 
mined, in  the  prosecution  of  the  work  of  colored  evan- 
gelization, by  maintaining  the  most  friendly  relations  with 
it,  and  keeping  ourselves  duly  informed  of  its  needs,  and 
supplying  them  in  whatever  methods  may  be  deemed  most 
expedient. 

As  the  Northern  committee  held  out  for  the  organic  con- 
nection of  the  colored  churches  w^ith  their  Assembly,  the 
joint  committee  adopted  the  preamble  of  Dr.  Hoge's  paper, 
reported  the  fundamental  difference,  and  recommended  the 
maintenance  of  the  status  quo,  v^ith  the  most  cordial  sym- 
pathy of  each  in  the  vv^ork  of  the  other.  There  are  many  in 
the  Southern  church  who  would  have  turned  the  whole  mat- 
ter over  to  the  Northern  Assembly,  rather  than  build  up  two 
sets  of  colored  synods  and  presbyteries  in  the  South,  had 
they  not  feared  that  their  churches  would  lose  interest  with 
the  loss  of  responsibility. 

Of  the  London  Council  of  the  Presbyterian  Alliance, 
which  he  attended  that  year,  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  entertainingly 
(July  II,  1888): 

It  is  like  telling  one's  dream,  but  it  is  a  waking  reality 
that  I  am  the  sole  occupant  of  one  of  the  most  elegant 
houses  in  the  West  End  of  London,  on  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  squares.  It  happened  in  this  way.  For  ten  days 
I  was  at  the  De  Kayser  Royal  Hotel,  hard  by  Blackfriars 
Bridge;  but  while  I  was  taking  "mine  ease  in  mine  own 
inn,"  one  of  the  London  pastors  told  me  that  a  wealthy  lady, 
a  member  of  his  church,  had  gone  to  Scotland  to  be  absent 
all  the  summer,  but  had  expressed  the  earnest  wish  that  her 
house  should  be  occupied  by  members  of  the  Alliance  dur- 
ing its  sessions,  and  he  invited  me  and  another  delegate 
from  the  South  to  accept  the  proffered  hospitality  of  his 
parishioner.  My  fellow-countryman  had  made  another 
arrangement  which  he  could  not  change,  and  so  had  to  de- 
cline the  invitation ;  but  I  accepted  it,  and  on  removing 


326  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

from  the  De  Kayser  to  my  new  quarters,  I  found  the  kind 
pastor  here  to  receive  me  and  to  put  me  in  charge  of  the 
good  housekeeper,  who  welcomed  me  in  the  absence  of  her 
mistress.  She  had  been  expecting  guests  every  day,  and  as 
the  servants,  provisions,  supphes  and  luxuries  of  every 
sort,  were  all  in  place,  there  would  have  been  a  disappoint- 
ment had  no  one  come  to  enjoy  them.  I  can  hardly  describe 
the  feeling  of  quiet  restfulness  which  possesses  me  here, 
after  being  ten  days  in  a  crowded  steamer,  then  in  the  great 
audiences  in  Exeter  Hall,  to  return  in  the  evening  to  the 
cool,  still  rooms  (the  housekeeper  says  there  are  twenty- 
four  in  all)  of  this  noble  mansion,  far  removed  from  the 
throngs,  the  traffic,  and  the  roar  of  the  city. 

And  now  what  shall  I  tell  you  about  the  Alliance  ?  It  is 
scarcely  worth  while  to  attempt  to  give  you  an  account  of 
its  doings,  which  you  will  learn  so  much  more  satisfactorily 
from  the  newspapers  which  I  am  sending  you.  Among 
the  speakers  who  attract  most  attention  are  Professor 
Charteris,  of  Edinburgh;  Dr.  Drummond,  of  Glasgow; 
Dr.  Donald  Eraser,  of  London;  Dr.  Eugene  Bersier,  of 
Paris ;  Dr.  John  Hall,  of  New  York ;  Principal  Rainy,  of 
Edinburgh;  Rev.  M.  de  Pressense,  of  Paris;  Dr.  Watts, 
of  Belfast ;  Rev.  E.  Van  Orden,  of  Brazil.  There  are 
delegates  in  the  Alliance  from  every  part  of  the  United 
States  and  the  British  possessions  in  North  America^ 
from  nearly  every  kingdom  in  Europe,  from  Africa,  Asia, 
Australia,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  representing  a  popula- 
tion of  above  twenty  millions  associated  with  the  Presby- 
terian churches  of  the  world.  And  yet  the  reports  of  the 
doings  of  this  august  council  are  to  be  found  only  in  the 
religious  newspapers.  One  looks  in  vain  through  the  mul- 
titudinous columns  of  the  Times,  Telegraph,  Standard, 
Daily  News,  etc.,  for  any  account  of  its  proceedings,  but 
for  that  matter,  they  are  almost  equally  silent  with  regard 
to  the  great  Anglican  Lambeth  Council  now  in  progress  in 
this  city.  It  is  not  the  custom  of  the  secular  press  in  Lon- 
don to  report  the  proceedings  of  religious  bodies.  I  need 
not  say  how  different  it  is  in  our  own  country.  Had  this 
Alliance  of  the  Reformed  churches  of  the  world  met  in 
Virginia  every  one  of  our  Richmond  daily  newspapers 
would  have  reported  everything  connected  with  the  meet- 
ing.    The  London  papers  devoted  many  columns  to  the 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  327 

notorious  trial  of  the  libel  action  brought  by  Wood,  the 
famous  jockey,  against  his  alleged  slanderer,  but  the  doings 
of  two  great  ecclesiastical  bodies,  the  Anglican  and  the 
Pan-Presbyterian,  representing  so  large  a  part  of  Chris- 
tendom, scarcely  receives  a  passing  notice. 

I  have  not  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  any  of  the  dis- 
tinguished ministers  of  the  Alliance  preach.  I  have  heard 
them  on  the  platform,  and  would  have  been  delighted  to 
have  heard  some  of  them  in  the  pulpit,  but  I  have  lost  the 
chance  in  consequence  of  having  agreed  to  preach  in  St. 
Columba  Church  (Rev.  Dr.  MacLeod's)  last  Sunday  morn- 
ing, and  in  the  Camden  Park  Road  Church  (Rev.  Mr. 
Thornton's)  in  the  evening,  and  in  the  Regent  Square 
Church — lately  vacated  by  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Dykes — • 
next  Sunday  morning,  and  in  the  church  of  which  Rev. 
Donald  Fraser  is  pastor,  in  the  evening.  During  these 
sessions  of  the  Alliance,  of  course,  all  the  pulpits  of  the 
Presbyterian  pastors  of  London  are  filled  by  ministers  from 
abroad. 

The  tedium  of  the  session  of  the  Alliance  has  been  re- 
lieved by  pleasant  excursions  judiciously  interposed  be- 
tween the  business  meetings.  The  first  was  to  Argyll 
Lodge.  The  Duke  himself  was  not  present,  owing  to 
having  to  make  a  speech  in  Parliament  that  afternoon  ;  but 
he  was  well  represented  by  Lord  Balfour,  who,  in  the 
Duke's  absence,  made  an  address  of  welcome  to  the  Alli- 
ance, to  which  there  were  several  handsome  responses.  It 
was  to  have  been  a  sort  of  garden  party,  but  so  frequent 
were  the  showers  that  the  guests  were  forced  to  take  refuge 
under  the  piazza  of  the  Lodge,  or  in  the  great  tent  on  the 
lawn.  When  the  sun  came  out,  so  did  the  guests,  some  of 
whom  for  the  first  time  saw  the  Pipers,  in  all  the  bravery 
of  their  Highland  costumes,  strutting  up  and  down  the 
lawn,  with  the  indescribable  pride  of  their  race,  and  heard 
the  wild  notes  of  the  pibroch.  I  believe  I  am  the  only  one, 
out  of  Scotland,  that  enjoys  the  music  of  the  bagpipes.  It 
always  excites  and  delights  me,  and  I  would  at  any  time 
rather  listen  to  the  shrill  strains  of  one  of  these  musical 
Macs,  when  he  "screws  his  pipes  and  gars  them  skirl," 
than  hear  Rubenstein,  Von  Bulow,  or  Hoflfman  on  the 
piano. 


328  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

His  own  part  in  the  council  was  one  of  those  disappoint- 
ments to  which  all  speakers  are  liable.  The  subject  on  which 
he  was  to  speak  had  been  carefully  arranged  by  correspond- 
ence, and  he  had  made  very  thorough  preparation.  It  was  on 
"Christ's  Method  of  Reconciling  the  Antagonisms  of  So- 
ciety," and  as  written  was  one  of  his  finest  productions.  The 
address  was  set  for  the  close  of  the  evening  programme,  on 
July  5th;  but  the  preceding  speaker,  although  speaking  in 
his  own  home,  entirely  forgot  the  limitations  of  time  and 
the  courtesy  due  to  the  speaker  who  was  to  follow.  Before 
he  was  through  the  audience  had  begun  to  stream  out  to 
catch  the  trains  for  their  distant  homes.  When  Dr.  Hoge 
was  announced,  he  said  that  it  was  of  course  out  of  the 
question  to  discuss  such  a  subject  as  had  been  assigned  him 
at  that  hour,  and  made  a  bright,  captivating  little  speech  of 
a  few  minutes,  that  arrested  the  exodus  and  sent  every  one 
home  in  a  good  humor — except,  perhaps,  himself. 

Far  more  fortunate  was  he  in  his  address  in  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston,  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Conference 
of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  in  December,  1889.  The  sub- 
ject was  "Christian  Cooperation  in  Awakening  the  Moral 
Sentiment  of  the  Community."  Here  the  magnificent  audi- 
ence was  appreciative  and  responsive,  and  the  address  was 
praised  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other,  not  only  for 
its  lofty  thought,  but  for  the  beautiful  literary  form  in  which 
the  thought  was  clothed.  Like  St.  Paul  at  Athens,  he  showed 
in  the  Athens  of  America  how  well  he  calculated  the  intel- 
lectual meridian  of  his  audiences,  in  the  wealth  of  literary 
allusion  that  adorned  his  discourse  without  ever  diverting 
him  from  the  steady  progress  of  his  thought. 

But  as  we  approach  the  limits  of  this  chapter  we  are  re- 
minded that  we  have  said  nothing  of  the  International 
Sunday-school  Committee,  whose  sessions  he  always  at- 
tended, and  to  whose  work  he  gave  diligent  service  and 
helpful  suggestions;  nothing  of  his  great  sermon  on  the 
"Finality  of  the  Scriptures,"  delivered  before  a  great  audi- 


In  Labors  More  Abundant.  329 

■ence  of  the  leading  men  of  the  country  in  the  New  York 
Avenue  Church,  in  Washington,  and  repeated  many  times 
by  special  request  elsewhere ;  nothing  of  his  addresses  before 
the  Students'  Conference  at  Northfield,  nor  of  college  ad- 
dresses without  number;  nothing  of  the  lectures  delivered 
in  many  places  for  benevolent  objects,  of  the  sermons 
preached  to  help  his  fellow-ministers  on  special  occasions,  of 
the  churches  that  he  dedicated  in  all  parts  of  the  land.  It 
was  really  refreshing  to  hear  of  as  many  new  churches  as  he 
was  called  upon  to  dedicate.  In  our  lack  of  liturgical  forms 
for  such  services  everything  depends  on  the  taste  and  skill  of 
the  minister,  and  he  gave  to  every  part  of  such  a  service  the 
same  care  and  pains  as  to  the  sermon.^ 

Time  would  fail,  also,  to  tell  of  the  Confederate  memorial 
addresses,  the  funerals  of  old  soldiers  in  the  Confederate 
Home,  the  participation  in  the  funeral  services  of  prominent 
persons  of  all  denominations,  and  the  frequent  calls  for 
prayer  on  public  occasions. 

These  things  must  be  left  unchronicled.  He  sowed  beside 
all  waters,  and  not  only  the  harvest,  but  the  record  must  be 
left  to  eternity. 

His  life  was  now  hastening  to  a  climax,  and  we  will  close 
this  chapter  with  a  letter  that  closed  a  longer  chapter  in  his 
life — the  correspondence  with  the  widow  of  the  friend  of  his 
youth — his  last  letter  to  Mrs.  Greenleaf : 

Richmond,  March  20,  1888. 
My  Dear  Sister:   This  is  the  anniversary  of  my  mar- 
riage.   Forty-four  years  ago  it  pleased  God  to  give  me  one 
whom  you  in  your  letters  have  often  called  "the  peerless 
Susan."     As   years   are   counted,   the   time   seems   long, 

'  Among  the  principal  churches  dedicated  by  him  may  be  men- 
tioned: The  First  Church,  Atlanta;  the  Grand  Avenue  Church,  St. 
Louis ;  the  Central  Church,  Washington ;  the  Central  Church,  Kansas 
■City;  the  First  Church,  Louisville;  the  First  Church,  of  Fulton.  Mo., 
■of  which  his  nephew,  William  Hoge  Marquess,  was  the  pastor  ;  the 
Church  of  the  Covenant  and  Hoge  Memorial,  in  Richmond,  and  the 
Chapel  of  the  Soldiers'  Home. 


330  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

though  to  memory  it  is  but  as  yesterday  when  we  gathered 
in  the  evening  at  "Poplar  Hill"  a  company  of  happy 
friends,  some  eighty  in  number,  though  it  was  intended 
to  have  a  very  quiet  and  private  wedding ;  and  now,  of  all 
that  merry  throng,  not  a  dozen  survive.  As  our  years  wear 
on — I  speak  of  you  and  myself — they  bring  us  nearer  and 
nearer  to  one  another,  because  they  bring  us  nearer  to 
Christ  and  heaven.  "Forever  with  the  Lord"  and  with  one 
another;  what  an  anticipation  this  is  with  which  to  make 
the  true  life  attractive  and  glorious  ! 

Your  kind  and  tender  letter  in  acknowledging  the  copy 
of  the  little  speech  I  sent  you  was  in  itself  a  recompense  for 
composing  and  delivering  it.  I  know  of  no  pleasure  so 
pure  as  that  of  giving  pleasure  to  those  I  love. 

Bessie  keeps  you  informed  as  to  family  matters  and 
church  affairs.  I  am  thankful  to  say  both  are  in  such  a 
condition  as  to  keep  us  constantly  grateful.  My  own 
health  is  well  nigh  perfect.  It  has  been  ten  years  since  I 
had  a  cold,  and  I  never  had  a  headache.  Now  and  then  I 
have  a  touch  of  sciatica — a  severe  one  last  summer — but  it 
readily  yields  to  treatment,  so  I  am  little  interrupted  in  my 
work.  I  am  very  happy  in  my  two  congregations,  and 
especially  in  having  one  of  the  hitherto  "neglecters  because 
neglected,"  to  the  number  of  a  thousand  and  more,  every 
Sunday  night.  My  third  service  refreshes  me  when  I  get 
a  little  jaded  from  my  second. 

With  many  thanks  for  your  letter  and  endless  blessings- 
on  your  head  and  in  your  heart,  I  remain,  as  ever, 

Affectionately  yours,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Anniversaries. 
1890  — 1895. 

"Do  noble  things,  not  dream  them,  all  day  long  : 
And  so  make  life,  death,  and  that  vast  forever 

One  grand,  sweet  song." — Kingsley. 

HOW  many  there  are  who  go  to  their  graves  thirsting 
for  a  few  drops  of  the  appreciation  that  waters  their 
memory  with  copious  showers !  How  many  souls,  wearied 
in  service  for  others,  are  tempted  in  bitterness  to  say — 

"  Come  not,  when  I  am  dead, 

To  drop  thy  foolish  tears  upon  my  grave, 
To  trample  round  my  fallen  head 

And  vex  the  unhappy  dust  thou  wouldst  not  save." 

One  of  Dr.  Hoge's  favorite  themes  was  the  vahie  of  appre- 
ciation and  the  expression  of  it,  and  one  of  his  most  effective 
New  Year  sermons  was  on  the  text,  "Let  the  redeemed  of 
the  Lord  say  so/''  involving  not  only  the  duty  of  confession 
and  praise  to  God,  but  of  the  expression  to  benefactors  and 
loved  ones  of  our  recognition  of  what  they  are  and  of  what 
they  have  done  for  us.  Certainly  he  himself  had  no  cause 
for  complaint,  as  he  gratefully  acknowledges ;  for  his  min- 
istry had  always  called  forth  just  that  kind  of  appreciation 
that  most  helps  and  cheers  a  pastor.  The  great  end  of  the 
ministry,  of  course,  is  to  help ;  but  it  helps  us  to  help  when 
we  know  that  we  help ;  and  if  life  is  made  "one  grand,  sweet 
song"  by  devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  some  echoes  of  that 
song  should  come  back  to  us  in  the  gratitude  and  love  of 
those  to  whom  we  minister. 

But  few  can  expect  those  echoes  to  come  to  them  in  such 
a  swelling  "Hallelujah  Chorus"  as  greeted  Dr.  Hoge  on  the 
anniversaries  that  crowned  his  ministry. 


332  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

When  it  became  known  that  his  congregation  intended 
to  celebrate  his  forty-fifth  anniversary,  the  demand  came 
quick  and  strong  that  it  should  not  be  confined  to  his  congre- 
gation. It  was  said,  "Dr.  Hoge  belongs  to  Richmond,  and 
not  to  one  congregation,  or  to  one  denomination."  So  the 
scope  of  the  celebration  was  widened.  Prominent  repre- 
sentatives of  other  denominations  were  invited  to  take  part, 
and  the  Academy  of  Music — the  largest  hall  in  the  city — 
was  chosen  for  the  place.  Richmond  was  present ;  all  of  it 
that  could  crowd  in.  Friends  came  from  far  and  near. 
Most  precious  of  all  to  him,  his  oldest  daughter  was  present ; 
the  first  time  in  twenty-five  years  that  she  had  been  in  a 
public  assembly.  The  proceedings  of  the  evening  make  in 
themselves  quite  a  volume,  and  the  letters  of  congratulation, 
if  published,  would  make  another.  From  the  leading  ad- 
dresses of  the  occasion  we  give  a  few  of  the  most  important 
passages. 

Dr.  John  Hall,^  of  New  York,  said : 

I  have  pleasure  in  taking  any  modest  part  in  these  un- 
common exercises ;  for  it  is  not  often,  in  this  land,  that  a 
pastor  labors  in  the  same  field  for  five-and-forty  years. 
This  celebration  is  honorable  to  the  pastor ;  it  is  honorable 
also  to  the  church  he  serves,  and  to  the  community  which 
thus  express  their  appreciation. 

I  am  a  representative,  and  one  can  sometimes  claim  atten- 
tion on  that  ground — attention  to  which  he  would  not  be 
entitled  as  an  individual.  I  stand,  first  of  all,  for  the  con- 
gregation which  I  serve.  Dr.  Hoge  has  been  in  their  pulpit, 
and,  setting  aside  his  exceptional  brilliancy,  in  all  other  mat- 
ters he  is  counted  by  them  as  old-fashioned  and  orthodox  as 
their  pastor.  I  stand  for  the  community  of  New  York  with 
which  I  come  in  contact,  which  always  listens  to  his  voice 
with  the  deepest  interest  and  respect.  I  stand  for  the  great 
Presbyterian  community,  as  it  was  represented  at  the  Cen- 
tennial exercises  in  Philadelphia,  and  for  a  larger  constitu- 

1  Dr.  Hall's  address  is  given  in  full  as  printed ;  but,  except  the  first 
two  paragraphs,  it  is  only  a  scant  epitome  of  what  he  said.  It  was 
printed  in  the  Memorial  Volume  from  his  MS. 


The  Anniversaries.  333. 

ency  in  England,  Scotland,  Ireland  and  Wales,  knowing 
his  voice,  figure  and  characteristics.  I  stand  for  a  gentle- 
man, an  Englishman,  whose  name  I  do  not  know,  who  sat 
down  by  me  in  a  great  meeting  in  London  while  Dr.  Hoge 
was  speaking.  I  noticed  at  once  that  his  ears  were  open ; 
then  his  eyes  were  open ;  then  he  opened  his  mouth  and 
said  to  me,  "Is  that  young  man  an  American?"  If  the 
congregation  w'here  that  gentleman  worships  were  vacant, 
and  Dr.  Hoge  were  a  candidate  for  the  pulpit,  I  am  sure  he 
would  vote  for  him. 

Dr.  Hoge  is  entitled  to  our  regard  as  a  man,  for  the  man 
is  behind  the  minister.  We  do  not  believe  in  that  division 
of  the  race  given  as  "men,  women  and  ministers."  We 
honor  Dr.  Hoge  as  a  good,  genial  gentleman.  In  any  line 
of  life  he  would  be  valued  and  trusted. 

We  know  him  as  an  evangelist,  a  minister  not  content 
with  "running  a  congregation,"  as  they  say,  but  toiling  for 
the  good  of  outsiders.  We  honor  him  as  a  pastor.  It  is  no 
light  thing  to  have  filled  this  place  in  this  influential  city  for 
five-and-forty  years.  I  have  been  just  half  that  time  in 
my  present  charge,  and  I  sometimes  feel  as  if  my  people 
know  about  all  that  I  do ;  but  there  comes  to  me  the  sober 
second  thought  that  I  have  the  divine  word  to  explain  to 
them,  and  it  is  inexhaustible. 

After  an  illustration  of  the  difificulties  of  a  busy  city 
preacher  from  a  Scottish  minister's  career,  and  another  of 
the  tenderness  of  the  tie  binding  pastor  and  people  together^ 
the  Doctor  proceeded: 

We  honor — I  honor — Dr.  Hoge  as  a  preacher  of  the  gos- 
pel of  grace.  Men  are  now  dividing  up  vice  into  sections,. 
with  an  organization  to  deal  with  each  section.  The  evan- 
gelical minister  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter  with  the 
grace  that  teaches  men  to  deny  ungodliness  and  all  worldly 
lusts.  There  is  a  sphere  in  which  it  may  be  wise  policy  to 
"divide  and  conquer,"  but  it  is  not  the  physician's  way  to 
give  medicine  for  each  symptom.  He  diagnoses  the  case, 
and  strikes  at  the  root  of  the  trouble.  So  the  Physician  of 
souls  would  have  us  do ;  and  all  virtue  is  so  promoted. 
We  are  taught  to  "live  soberly,  righteously  and  godly"  in 
the  world.    "An  ounce  of  prevention  is  better  than  a  pound 


334  Moses  Drury  Hoge, 

of  cure,"  and  the  man  who  is  bringing  the  gospel  to  the 
homes  and  hearts  of  the  people  is  guarding  against  wrong- 
doing, sin  and  the  crimes  which  cost  the  community  so 
much.  A  city  may  justly  honor  a  faithful  preacher  of  the 
grace  that  brings  such  salvation.  Men  say  that  we  want, 
not  dogma,  but  doing  good ;  but  as  the  multiplication  table 
is  for  making  us  keep  accounts,  as  the  rules  of  grammar 
are  for  making  us  talk  good  English,  so  the  doctrines  of 
the  Bible  are  for  making  us  good,  useful,  unselfish  Chris- 
tians, and  so  good  citizens.  I  read  not  long  ago  of  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  gospel,  in  the  "fatherhood  of  God,  the 
motherhood  of  nature,  and  the  brotherhood  of  man."  It 
is  nice  to  the  ear;  it  is  unmeaning,  however.  It  is  when 
we  know  God  in  Christ  that  we  have  the  deepest  sense  of 
his  fatherhood  and  of  our  brotherhood.  Dr.  Peter  Parker 
realized  that  when  he  founded  an  hospital  in  Canton,  China, 
which  has  treated,  I  suppose,  a  million  of  sufferers,  and  did 
it  all  in  the  spirit  of  living  Christianity.  Where  would  the 
"charities"  of  our  nation  be  if  it  were  not  for  the  inspiration 
of  this  faith  in  Christ  revealed  in  the  gospel  of  grace  ? 

Bishop  Wilson,  of  Baltimore,  spoke  more  particularly  of 
Dr.  Hoge's  relation  to  the  great  movements  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived : 

Perhaps  few  men  in  the  country,  few  men  in  the  world, 
have  been  able  to  affect  personally,  not  simply  by  any  far- 
reaching  utterance  of  his  own  that  has  gone  through  the 
press  and  has  been  sounded  out  from  other  lips,  but  by  his 
own  personality,  such  multitudes  of  men  as  the  pastor  of 
this  church.  And  his  popularity  in  that  better,  best  sense 
of  the  term  has  not  declined  with  the  advance  of  years. 

This,  I  say,  is  its  culminating  expression.  Richmond  is 
here  to-night — the  Richmond  church,  not  the  Richmond 
churches  simply — the  Richmond  people,  church  and  all ; 
thoughtful  people,  honest  people,  grateful  people,  people 
who  know  good  when  they  see  it,  and  can  recognize  the 
effect  of  a  strong,  hearty,  vigorous,  sympathetic,  God-like 
life  when  it  comes  out  in  such  development.  The  people 
and  the  church  of  God  are  here  to  testify  to  the  fidelity  of 
this  man  to  his  work  and  to  the  efficiency  of  his  work.  I 
am  glad  and  grateful  to  witness  it. 


The  Anniversaries.  335 

There  are  two  things  always  to  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion when  you  consider  the  position  of  a  man  who  has  such 
popularity  as  this.  One  is,  what  has  he  taken  into  himself? 
and  the  other  is,  what  has  he  given  out  from  himself? 

He  has  come  through  the  critical  years,  in  fact,  of  Ameri- 
can history.  It  was  but  a  little  time  after  he  commenced  his 
pastorate  in  this  church  before  he  heard  from  afar  the  note 
of  that  marvellous  war  down  there  with  Mexico,  which 
opened  to  us  that  great  southwestern  territory,  and  brought 
us  into  close  relationship  with  South  America,  and  affected 
the  tone  of  our  national  life.  About  the  same  time  there 
came  the  cry  of  California  gold,  and  the  rush  of  emigration 
across  the  west,  and  roads  were  opened,  and  presently 
towns  and  cities  began  to  spring  up,  and  a  new  country 
was  created. 

Over  yonder,  Oregon  was  brought  into  close  connection 
by  the  struggle  over  its  limit  and  the  interest  of  its  people, 
and  a  cry  began  to  be  made  about  the  northwest  territory. 
B)'--and-by  railroads  were  projected  in  that  direction,  and 
the  intimacy  between  the  East  and  the  West  was  cultivated 
until  the  heart  of  the  people  in  all  these  great  interests  of 
national  life  became  one.  And  all  this  time,  keen-eyed, 
sympathies  open,  he  was  in  the  thick  of  this  constantly  con- 
verging swell  of  human  impulses  and  influences,  and  grow- 
ing with  it,  until  his  own  nature  became  as  broad ;  and  that 
was  not  sufficient  for  him,  but  he  wanted  to  touch  hands 
and  hearts  with  the  people  of  other  lands. 

He  crossed  the  seas ;  heard  English  accentuation  of 
American  speech ;  went  among  the  Welsh  populations,  and 
the  Irish ;  and  he  would  lay  himself  alongside,  in  brotherly 
consciousness  and  earnest  Christian  service,  with  the  old- 
world  workers,  and  got  all  that  was  best  and  truest  and 
strongest  out  of  their  life,  and  brought  it  back  here ;  and  he 
has  continued  to  cultivate  these  sympathies.  He  has  gone 
into  the  individual  and  social  life  of  families  of  this  city, 
as  well  as  of  other  cities  and  foreign  lands.  He  has  seen 
and  appreciated  the  best  sides  and  best  qualities  of  social 
life.  He  has  gone  into  the  individual  life  of  cultivated  men 
and  of  the  common  people.  He  has  gone  into  the  homes  of 
the  poor,  and  has  appreciated  their  need  and  the  narrow- 
ness of  their  lives. 

There  is  no  phase  of  our  diversified  human  nature  that 


336  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

he  has  not  looked  into  and  which  has  not  worked  upon  his 
sympathies,  and  brought  them  out,  and  unfolded  them, 
until  he  claims  humanity  as  one,  and  himself  imbedded  irt 
the  centre  of  its  great  brotherhood.  It  is  just  because  he 
has  gone  into  such  wideness  of  sympathy  with  our  kind, 
has  touched  so  many  sides  in  human  life,  has  become  identi- 
fied with  so  many  interests  of  human  nature ;  it  is  because 
he  has  interchanged  thoughts  with  so  many  forms  and 
specimens  of  human  character;  because  he  has  wept  with 
them  that  weep,  rejoiced  with  them  that  rejoice,  under  all 
the  manifold  conditions  of  our  life ;  it  is  because  of  these 
that  he  has  become  popular. 

Narrowness  shows  a  man  within  a  narrow  circle;  in- 
dividual narrowness  of  thought  and  feeling.  The  man  who 
looks  into  his  own  household,  and  that  alone,  and  never 
gets  out  into  the  community,  never  gets  into  the  broad  field 
of  common  life  in  its  development  about  him :  who  does- 
not  know  anything  about  the  party  interests  of  the  country, 
and  which  is  right  and  which  is  wrong,  and  the  great  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  country,  and  the  wants  of  the  great 
masses  of  the  people,  rich  and  poor ;  the  man  who  thinks 
only  of  what  is  going  to  build  up  his  own  character  and 
fortunes,  and  has  no  other  concerns,  will  never  be  a  popu- 
lar man,  and  ought  not  to  be. 

But  when  a  man  has  got  the  whole  broad  surface  of  our 
humanity,  with  its  infinite  variety  of  life  and  issues  open 
to  him,  you  may  make  him  popular  without  danger  to  any 
community ;  and  when  a  man  comes  back  charged  in  this 
way  with  the  profoundest  concern  for  all  human  interests, 
with  the  closest  sympathy  with  all  human  conditions,  to 
take  his  place,  not  simply  as  a  minister  and  doctor,  but  as- 
a  man  among  men,  to  whom  nothing  human  is  foreign, 
when  he  is  ready  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 
toiler,  side  by  side  with  the  sufferer  under  shadow  of  the 
cloud,  when  he  knows  man  as  man,  and  as  man  enters  into 
sympathetic  association  with  him,  you  may  trust  him,  and 
he  will  be  a  popular  man,  and  ought  to  be. 

And,  now,  what  has  he  given  out  in  all  this  time  ?  Witb 
all  his  breadth  of  sympathy,  he  has  maintained  unalterably 
and  at  all  times  his  individual  convictions  upon  every  point 
that  has  been  brought  before  him  requiring  a  conviction. 


The  Anniversx\ries.  337 

I  reckon  you  know  all  about  that,  too.  He  has  had  the 
manhood  to  form  his  own  opinions,  to  sift  them,  to  test 
them ;  and,  if  they  were  the  right  kind  of  convictions,  he 
would  yield  them  to  no  man. 

A  good  many  questions  have  come  up  in  these  forty-five 
years.  First,  your  course  of  political  history ;  then,  your 
course  of  social  history,  which  has  threatened  all  our  rela- 
tions in  all  the  aspects  of  them.  The  multiplied  and 
complex  problems  that  have  been  presented  in  the  changed 
conditions  of  labor  and  of  capital  have  been  forced  upon 
our  attention. 

Do  you  suppose  that,  standing  here  in  the  centre  of  them, 
with  all  the  avenues  of  thought  and  life  pouring  in  their 
tides  of  influence  upon  him,  he  has  been  indifferent  to  any 
one  of  these  questions  ?  I  do  not  believe  it,  and  neither  do 
you. 

Not  a  man  of  us  standing  here  can  understand  the  import 
and  immense  interest  of  these  things,  and  not  think  about 
them  and  reach  conclusions. 

I  never  knew  a  man  yet  that  had  a  congregation  united 
upon  any  of  these  questions ;  and  the  strongest  temptation 
that  a  minister  of  the  gospel  has  is  to  compromise  his 
opinion  and  conviction  upon  these  points  so  as  to  keep  the 
peace,  prevent  disorder;  and  yet  he  has  learned  to  read 
that  word  of  scripture,  "First  pure,  then  peaceable,"  and 
has  held  to  his  own  convictions  and  has  made  no  enemies 
by  it.  That  is  the  marvel  of  it.  I  do  not  know  how  it  has 
happened.  There  is  in  it  something  more  than  mere  human 
fidelity.  There  is  a  grace  of  God  about  it,  and  the  power  of 
God's  Spirit  involved  in  it — that  a  man  can  stand  up  forty- 
five  years  true  to  himself,  his  creed,  honest  in  all  his  convic- 
tions, determined  in  his  attitude  and  his  relations  to  his 
people,  and  yet  cast  up  no  element  of  antagonism,  and  stir 
no  strife  or  discord  among  his  people  (I  hear  you  have 
never  had  a  strife  in  your  church) — it  is  a  marvel;  and 
when  a  man  has  attained  a  position  like  that,  without  com- 
promise, without  forfeiture  of  manhood,  without  giving  up 
his  own  convictions,  he  can  touch  the  great  body  and  mass 
of  the  people.  That  is  the  sort  of  man  I  want  to  see  in 
mission  Avork. 

I  confess  that  my  only  regret  about  the  matter  is,  that 
you  have  had  him  so  long.     Such  a  man  ought  not  to  be 


33^  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

shut  down  in  any  one  place.  You  know  I  am  a  Methodist. 
He  ought  to  itinerate,  and  bring  all  these  qualities  of  his 
along  with  him. 

Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry  spoke  more  of  Dr.  Hoge's  old-world 
relations : 

We  are  rather  boastful  of  the  influence  of  American  ideas 
and  institutions  on  international  law,  on  systems  and  poli- 
cies of  government,  on  great  truths  of  personal  and  reli- 
gious liberty;  and  we  hold  that  the  quadri-centennial 
celebration  of  the  discovery  of  America  will  find  its  crown- 
ing, consummate  glory  in  what  has  been  wrought  for 
humanity  and  Christ,  for  social,  political  and  industrial 
regeneration  within  the  limits  and  through  the  influence  of 
our  complex  and  related  governments  and  our  representa- 
tive institutions.  We  have  not  been  able  to  congratulate 
ourselves  on  like  beneficial  religious  results  flowing  back- 
wards to  mother  countries.  Dr.  Hoge,  however,  among  the 
few,  has  been  useful,  we  may  say  conspicuous,  in  foreign 
religious  assemblies,  in  foreign  pulpits,  in  association  with 
the  cultured,  in  making  a  favorable  impression  for  Ameri- 
can Christianity. 

He  has  preached  in  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Wales, 
on  the  continent,  in  Africa  and  in  Asia ;  and  as  confirma- 
tory of  what  I  have  affirmed  of  our  common  attachment 
to  the  one  universal  Christ,  the  "old,  old  story,"  as  he  pro- 
claimed it,  has  met  a  like  response  from  Christian  hearts 
in  widely  distant  lands.  The  eloquent  Bishop  has  said  that 
such  a  preacher  as  Dr.  Hoge  should  itinerate,  and  that  one 
place  should  not  monopolize  his  pulpit  ministrations. 
With  due  humility  I  respectfully  suggest  that  his  diocese 
has  been  a  large  one,  and  that  few  itinerants  have  had  such 
large  opportunities  for  utilizing  their  gifts.  It  is  a  singular 
fact  that  two  of  his  present  congregation,  eager  sharers  in 
this  joyous  celebration,  have  heard  their  pastor  on  four 
continents.  Dr.  Hoge  has  shown  his  catholic  Christianity 
by  sitting  under  the  ministry  of  those  who  have  illustrated 
in  their  labors  the  power,  the  universality,  and  the  all- 
sufficiency  of  the  gospel.  To  hear  Parker,  Liddon,  Spur- 
geon,  to  worship  in  tabernacle  and  cathedral,  to  rejoice  in 
a  common  faith,  that  is  genuine  catholicity. 


The  Anniversaries.  339 

It  was  the  pleasing  office  of  Bishop  Randolph,  of  the  Dio- 
cese of  Virginia,  to  speak  of  Dr.  Hoge  in  his  relations  to 
other  churches  and  denominations — a  task  to  which  his  own 
""sweet  spirit  of  Christian  unity"  peculiarly  fitted  him : 

Here  and  there  along  my  life  it  has  been  my  privilege  to 
sit  under  his  preaching.  That  preaching  has  always  kin- 
dled my  intellect  and  warmed  my  heart,  and  given  me  new 
impulses  of  hope  in  the  duties  of  my  calling.  A  few  years 
ago  I  parted  from  a  dear  member  of  my  family.  He  left 
us  to  study  for  his  profession  in  one  of  the  great  universi- 
ties of  Europe.  Often  in  my  prayers  I  asked  that  he 
might  be  protected  from  the  religious  indifference  and 
skepticism  which  characterized  the  great  city  in  which  he 
lived  for  nearly  two  years.  On  his  return,  the  first  Sunday 
he  spent  with  us,  he  went  to  the  worship  in  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church.  As  long  as  he  was  in  the  city,  no 
engagement  was  permitted  to  interfere  with  his  attendance 
upon  these  afternoon  services.  Upon  my  coming  home  in 
the  week,  in  the  quiet  hours  in  my  study,  he  would  tell  me 
of  the  current  of  thought  in  the  sermon.  I  could  see  that 
he  was  touched  and  deeply  impressed.  That  gladdened 
my  heart  and  warmed  it  toward  my  friend  and  brother 
more  than  I  can  tell  you.  In  some  sense,  then,  I  may  claim 
with  you,  his  people,  to  have  shared  the  benefits  of  your 
pastor's  ministry.  To  describe  the  relations  and  associa- 
tions, and  to  analyze  the  influences  upon  you,  his  congre- 
gation, and  upon  the  community,  of  such  a  ministry, 
extending  over  forty-five  years,  would  be  too  much  to  ask 
of  me  in  the  brief  time  at  my  disposal.  The  relations  of  a 
pastor  to  his  flock,  of  a  preacher  to  his  people,  are  abso- 
lutely unique.  The  lawyer  is  the  trusted  friend  of  his 
client;  the  family  physician,  who  ministers  to  us  in  our 
hours  of  weakness  and  suffering,  has  his  deep  place  in  our 
hearts  like  one  of  the  sacred  circle  of  our  home ;  but  the 
pastor,  whose  preaching  has  moved  and  warmed  and  illu- 
mined and  comforted  our  souls,  and  perchance  been  the 
instrument  in  God's  hands  to  bring  us  to  Christ ;  who  has 
moved  as  a  central  figure  through  all  the  scenes  of  our  joy 
and  our  sorrow ;  who  has  baptized  our  little  children,  mar- 
ried our  young  men  and  maidens,  buried  our  dead,  and 
•comforted  our  sorrows — such  associations  engfender  rela- 


340  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

tions  which  partake  of  the  nature  of  the  elements  with 
which  they  deal.  They  have  in  them  something  of  the 
imperishable,  the  immortal ;  and  these  ties  have  been  deep- 
ened in  your  case  by  circumstances  which,  though  not 
absolutely  without  precedent,  are  still  exceptional. 

The  relation  of  this  ministry  to  other  churches  and  to  the 
community  at  large  in  the  city  of  Richmond  find  their  best 
illustration  in  the  character  of  the  congregations  which 
gather  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  on  the  after- 
noons of  Sunday.  To  one  acquainted  with  the  people  of 
this  city,  in  looking  around  upon  that  congregation  as  it 
has  gathered  there  to  hear  the  preacher  for  many  years 
past,  it  would  be  difficult  to  tell,  but  for  the  forms  of  the 
worship,  the  name  of  the  church  we  are  in. 

You  see  around  you  Methodists  and  Presbyterians,  Epis- 
copalians and  Baptists,  all  singing  the  hymns  and  joining 
in  the  worship  and  listening  with  rapt  attention  to  the 
words  of  the  preacher.  It  has  been  said  that  there  is  less 
denominational  jealousy,  and  more  of  the  broad,  sweet 
spirit  of  Christian  unity,  among  the  churches  in  the  city 
of  Richmond  than  in  the  majority  of  communities  in  our 
land.  A  blessed  thing  it  is  to  say  of  any  community,  for  its 
civilization,  for  its  light,  its  education,  its  Christian  man- 
hood and  womanhood ;  it  is  blessed,  if  it  be  so.  Why 
should  it  not  be  so?  If  men  can  do  business  together  in 
the  same  offices,  in  the  same  stores;  if  women  can  mingle 
in  the  same  circles  of  social  and  family  life  in  a  thousand 
homes,  cannot  they  worship  God  together?  Cannot  they 
listen  to  the  preaching  of  Christ's  gospel  together?  Per- 
haps these  afternoon  services  have  helped  to  educate  our 
people  into  the  great  principles  of  practical  Christian  unity. 
Perhaps  they  have  helped  to  put  your  city  in  the  advance 
ranks  of  that  great  movement  throughout  Christendom 
for  Christian  unity.  The  tide  is  moving  and  rising  along 
the  lines  of  all  the  churches  in  Christendom.  The  day  is 
coming  when  jealousies  between  churches  and  rivalries  be- 
tween preachers  and  the  sharp  tongues  of  sectarian  exclu- 
siveness  will  be  numbered  among  the  things  of  the  past. 
It  will  come,  it  is  coming ;  not  by  what  you  call  the  oblitera- 
tion of  denominational  differences ;  not  by  all  churches 
consenting  to  merge  themselves  into  one  organism,  and 


The  Anniversaries.  341 

subscribe  to  one  confession  of  faith  and  one  theological 
system ;  not  when  Christendom  in  its  million  churches  will 
repeat  the  same  prayers  and  worship  through  the  same 
litany  and  chant  the  same  anthems.  That  would  be  the 
unity  of  sameness,  the  unity  of  uniformity,  the  unity  of  the 
sands  upon  the  seashore — all  alike,  yet  separate,  and  with 
no  living  bond  between  them.  This  unity  that  is  coming 
will  be  like  the  unity  of  nature,  one  spirit  under  diversity 
of  form ;  one  living  force  under  diversity  of  operation ; 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of 
all,  who  is  above  all,  and  with  you  all,  and  in  you  all.  How 
far  ahead  of  his  time  Paul  was !  The  Corinthians  divided 
into  parties ;  the  watch-word  of  one  party  was,  "I  am  of 
Paul ;"  of  another,  "I  am  of  Apollos ;"  another,  "I  am  of 
Cephas."  How  Paul  lifts  them,  and  lifts  the  Church  of  all 
ages,  out  of  its  inveterate  tendency  to  glory  in  itself,  to 
glory  in  men !  He  tells  them  that  the  ministry  is  your  ser- 
vant for  Jesus'  sake.  This  ministry,  with  all  its  gifts,  be- 
longs, not  to  itself,  but  to  you.  All  things  are  yours.  The 
faith  and  the  fire  of  Cephas ;  the  eloquence  and  the  grace 
of  Apollos  ;  the  logic  and  the  fervor  of  Paul — all  are  yours. 
All  the  ministers  and  churches  of  this  city  belong  to  each 
and  every  one  of  you  Christian  people.  Dr.  Hoge,  your 
own  minister,  as  a  preacher,  as  a  teacher,  belongs  to  me  as 
w^ell  as  to  you,  and  the  varied  gifts  of  ever  other  minister  in 
this  city  belong  to  us  all — they  are  all  our  servants  for 
Jesus'  sake ;  but  I  must  not  detain  you  from  others  who  are 
to  address  you  on  this  deeply  interesting  occasion.  This 
long  ministry  of  forty-five  years  among  you,  growing  and 
deepening  through  the  years,  gathering  larger  crowds  to- 
day under  its  preaching  than  at  any  other  period  of  its 
history,  old  in  years,  but  young  in  the  enthusiasm  and  the 
love  of  all  the  people,  is  a  signal  refutation,  is  it  not,  of  the 
common  criticism  of  the  indifferent  and  skeptical  classes 
of  our  age,  that  the  pulpit  has  lost  its  power  ?  that  the  mis- 
sion of  the  preacher  is  done?  They  tell  us  that  the  age  is 
a  practical,  a  materialistic  age ;  that  men  are  in  haste  to  be 
rich,  or  hurrying  after  pleasure,  or  driven  by  passion,  and 
that  they  will  not  listen  to  the  preacher.  Is  this  so?  This 
man  whom  you  honor  to-night  has  been  preaching  here 
forty-five  years.  Visit  his  church  on  Sunday  evening,  and 
there  are  young  men  and  old,  a  thronged  assemblage.  They 


342  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

are  listening  to  the  preacher  they  have  heard  hundreds  of 
times.  Would  they  listen  that  way  to  a  lecturer  upon 
science?  The  scientific  lecturer  would  tell  them  about  the 
structure  of  their  bodies,  about  the  laws  of  heat  and  elec- 
tricity, about  the  conservation  and  correlation  of  forces. 
How  long  do  you  suppose  he  would  hold  them,  listening 
there  to  him,  thronging  to  hear  him  ?  Twenty  years  ?  ten 
years  ?  one  year  ?  Oh !  no.  Men  must  listen  to  the  gospel ; 
they  have  their  sins,  their  sorrows,  their  battles  with  doubt 
and  temptations,  the  fear  of  death,  their  cry  for  help  in 
view  of  the  great  hereafter ;  human  guilt  and  Christ's  re- 
demption ;  man  the  prodigal,  and  God  the  Father  wel- 
coming him  home;  death  and  judgment  and  eternity. 
Men  will  listen  to  these  themes,  and  they  will  never  cease  to 
listen. 

Dr.  Kerr,  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  spoke  for  the 
Presbyterian  pastors  of  Richmond,  and  for  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church : 

If  I  am  to  speak  for  my  brethren,  the  Presbyterian  min- 
isters of  this  city,  what  shall  I  say  ? — that  Dr.  Hoge,  by  his 
eloquence  and  splendid  diction,  maintained  for  nearly  half 
a  century,  has  made  it  hard  for  us  to  preach,  not  only  in 
his  pulpit,  but  anywhere  within  the  range  of  his  influence? 
No;  not  that,  but  the  opposite,  for  by  the  incentive  and 
training  of  his  example  he  has  made  it  easier  for  us  to 
preach  the  gospel.  Because  he  has  disdained  the  tricks  and 
cheap  attractions  of  a  sensational  style,  adhering  to  the 
simplicity  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  attractiveness  of  the 
cross,  it  has  been  easier  for  us  to  tell  the  story  of  re- 
deeming love.  He  has  raised  the  standard  of  pulpit  effort, 
and  has  raised  the  respect  and  influence  of  the  ministry  in 
the  sentiments  of  the  people.  He  has  made  it  easier  for  us 
to  do  our  work,  because  he  has  made  the  name  of  a  Chris- 
tian minister  honorable  in  this  great  commonwealth  and  far 
beyond  it.  More  than  that :  he  has  made  it  easier  to  be  a 
Christian,  easier  for  clergy  and  laity ;  easier  for  those  who 
toil  with  the  muscle  or  brain ;  easier  for  the  wealthy  and 
learned ;  easier  for  the  humble  poor  to  lead  a  sober,  right- 
eous and  godly  life  to  the  glory  of  the  Almighty  name. 
He  has  done  it  by  his  preaching;    he  has  done  it  by  his 


The  Anniversaries.  343 

conversation ;  he  has  done  it  by  the  Hfe  he  has  lived,  which 
has  been  for  half  a  century  in  the  public  eye  unchallenged 
and  unrebuked  even  by  the  carping  world ;  a  life  that  has 
added,  so  that  all  can  feel  it,  to  the  momentum  of  goodness 
that  is  moving  mankind  toward  God. 

I  do  not  consider  that,  in  standing  for  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church  to-night  I  am  in  her  name  to  confer 
a  distinction  on  Dr.  Hoge.  There  are  none  left  that  she 
has  not  already  given  him.  For  twenty-five  years  there 
has  hardly  been  a  vacant  pulpit  of  importance,  a  professor- 
ship or  presidency  in  college  or  university,  which  had  not 
been  his  if  he  wished  it.  We  have  been  glad  to  have  him 
preside  as  Moderator,  in  the  succession  with  Thornwell, 
Palmer,  Robinson  and  Dabney.  He  has  been  our  agent  in 
many  most  delicate  and  difficult  negotiations  with  other 
denominations.  We  have  sent  him  more  than  once  to  the 
World's  Alliance  of  Presbyterian  Churches  and  to  the  con- 
ferences of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  of  all  the  Christians. 

If  I  should  gather  up  all  the  laurels  of  forty-five  years, 
and  twine  them  into  a  wreath,  it  would  be  too  heavy  for  me 
to  lift  and  place  it  upon  his  brow,  though  he  would  be 
strong  enough  to  bear  it. 

And  now  let  the  mighty  impulse  of  this  one  feeling  which 
fills  all  hearts  rise  in  prayer  to  God,  that  this  star  may  long 
shine  in  our  earthly  skies.  It  shall  never  go  down ;  it  shall 
at  last  ascend  to  glisten  in  a  purer  firmament,  and  come  to 
rest  beside  the  eternal  throne.  Let  us  pray  that  it  long  may 
linger  here,  and  shine  as  bright  as  it  does  to-night ;  and 
when  we  make  this  prayer  let  the  people  say.  Amen  !  Amen ! 

When  Dr.  Hoge  arose  to  respond  at  the  conclusion  of  this 
speech,  the  rounds  of  applause  that  greeted  him  soon  gave 
way  to  a  breathless  hush  as  the  vast  throng  waited  to  catch 
his  first  words.  The  delicacy,  the  grace,  the  tenderness,  the 
power  of  this  speech  can  only  be  imagined  by  those  who 
have  heard  Dr.  Hoge.  The  joy,  tempered  with  sadness  at 
the  thought  of  the  multitudes  that  had  gone  before;  the 
gratitude  chastened  with  unaffected  humility ;  the  kindliness 


344  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

and  benignity  towards  all  classes  in  the  community  for  which 
he  had  so  long  labored;  the  generous  and  cordial  tributes 
to  the  men  who  honored  the  occasion  with  their  presence, 
and  their  words;  above  all,  the  supreme  honor  and  glory 
given  to  the  Triune,  covenant-keeping  God;  all  these  ele- 
ments mingled  in  a  speech  that  only  such  a  man  could  have 
made  on  such  an  occasion.  The  words  spoken  we  can  read ; 
the  voice,  the  manner,  and  the  fine  aroma  of  the  night  linger 
only  in  the  memory  and  the  heart. 

It  is  difficult  to  find  words  in  which  to  express  the  com- 
mingled emotions  awakened  by  this  anniversary. 

First  of  all,  I  trust  my  most  fervent  feeling  is  gratitude 
to  God  for  sparing  me  to  this  hour;  gratitude  for  per- 
mitting me  to  serve  him  so  long  in  the  ministry  of  the  gos- 
pel ;  gratitude  for  the  unbroken  harmony  which  has 
existed  between  my  people  and  myself,  and  for  the  unity 
and  peace  which  have  made  their  relations  to  each  other 
so  delightful.  The  blessings  and  the  benefits  which  result 
from  such  concord  have  been  so  happily  portrayed  in  the 
different  addresses  of  the  evening  that  we  have  had  a  fresh 
and  inspiriting  impression  of  the  beauty  of  the  psalm  whose 
opening  words  always  fall  like  music  on  the  ear  of  the 
listening  heart,  "Behold,  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is 
for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity." 

Next  I  hasten  to  acknowledge  the  generous  greeting 
given  me  at  the  very  commencement  of  these  exercises  by 
one  whose  high  official  position  and  personal  worth  make 
any  expression  of  regard  from  such  a  source  dear  to  me — 
one  who  comes  from  my  native  county,  who  represents  my 
college,  and,  better  still,  who  represents  this  noble  com- 
monwealth— borne,  as  he  was,  into  office  on  the  tide  of  an 
overwhelming  popular  vote — one  who  was  the  friend  of 
my  youth,  as  he  has  been  during  all  the  succeeding  years, 
his  Excellency  Governor  Philip  Watkins  McKinney. 

Next,  I  desire  most  affectionately  to  reciprocate  the 
assurances  of  regard  and  confidence  expressed  in  the  reso- 
lutions of  the  Presbyterian  Pastors'  Association,  made  all 
the  more  welcome  to  me  because  drafted  by  the  brother  in 
charge  of  the  church  which  was  a  colony  from  my  own,  and 
read  to  this  audience  by  my  colleague  at  the  Old  Market 


The  Anniversaries.  345 

Hall,  who  is  now  conducting  that  enterprise  with  signal 
success. 

And  what  response  can  I  make  to  the  cordial  and  loving 
words  spoken  by  my  revered  and  honored  brethren  who 
have  come  from  their  near  or  distant  homes  to  honor  this 
occasion  with  their  presence,  and  to  lay  me  under  obliga- 
tions I  can  never  repay  or  express,  so  moved  am  I  by  their 
generous  approval? 

It  might  be  supposed  that  such  addresses  as  we  have 
heard  to-night,  replete  with  commendation  and  encourage- 
ment, would  fill  my  heart  only  with  emotions  exultant  and 
joyous ;  but  who  does  not  know  that  in  the  midst  of  scenes 
fullest  of  gladness  there  often  intermingles  with  the  joy  a 
strange  sadness,  like  a  solemn  refrain  running  through  a 
jubilant  song? 

When  I  remember  that  of  the  sixty-three  members  com- 
posing the  church  with  which  I  commenced  my  ministry 
but  two  are  with  us  to-night ;  when  I  remember  that  those 
to  whom  I  have  preached  since  that  year,  now  numbered 
with  the  departed,  would  form  a  larger  congregation  than 
this  vast  assembly ;  when  I  recall  to  mind  the  fact  that  it 
was  my  office  to  direct  the  religious  thought,  to  shape  the 
Christian  principles,  and  to  develop  the  spiritual  life  of  that 
great  multitude,  the  remembrance  of  the  imperfect  manner 
in  which  I  discharged  that  solemn  trust,  and  the  conviction 
that  I  might  have  been  far  more  helpful  to  those  who  are 
now  beyond  the  reach  of  earthly  influence  had  I  preached 
more  faithfully,  more  tenderly,  more  lovingly,  admonishes 
me  that,  if  this  is  an  hour  for  joy,  it  is  also  an  hour  for  peni- 
tence and  tears. 

So,  too,  while  listening  to  the  kind  words  which  have 
been  spoken  with  regard  to  my  life  and  labors,  I  have  been 
conscious  that  they  were  descriptive  rather  of  what  I  ought 
to  have  been  and  might  have  been ;  and  none  can  better 
understand  and  appreciate  my  meaning  than  these  very 
brethren  when  I  say  that  I  am  more  humbled  than  elated 
by  their  unmerited  commendation,  and  that  the  best  use  I 
can  now  make  of  their  approval  is  to  derive  from  it  a  stimu- 
lus hereafter  to  follow  with  more  affectionate  fidelity  in 
the  footsteps  of  my  Lord,  and  to  serve  the  people  to  whom 
I  minister  with  new  diligence  and  devotion. 

In  this  I  am  encouraged  by  the  conviction  that,  with 


346  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

whatever  conscientious  study  and  honest  work  I  can  prose- 
cute my  coming  labor,  I  shall  be  sustained  in  the  future,  as 
I  have  been  in  the  past,  by  the  cooperation  of  the  earnest 
men  and  noble  women  of  my  charge. 

No  pastor  was  ever  blessed  with  a  more  loyal  church  ^ 
and  so  far  as  its  enterprises  have  been  successful,  the  result 
has  been  mainly  due  to  the  ready  sympathy  and  persistent 
activity  of  its  members ;  and  I  avail  myself  of  this  great 
opportunity  of  bearing  this  public  testimony  to  the  loving 
fidelity  and  consecrated  devotion  of  my  people — a  fidelity, 
a  devotion  that  has  never  faltered  or  wavered,  but  has  been 
as  undeviatingly  fixed  and  true  as  the  pointers  of  the  splen- 
did constellation  that  to-night  with  fingers  of  radiant  light 
and  beauty  point  steadily  to  the  pole. 

But  no  church,  however  organized  and  equipped,  if 
isolated  from  its  sister  churches,  or  if  antagonistic  to  them, 
can  accomplish  any  widespread  and  permanent  good  in  the 
community. 

And  here,  too,  I  find  another  element  and  explanation  of 
whatever  of  service  my  church  has  rendered  to  the  ma- 
terial, the  intellectual,  and  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
public. 

It  has  had  the  good  will  of  all  denominations — most 
notably  and  unmistakably  their  kindest  regards. 

And  this  leads  me  to  ask,  in  conclusion,  what  is  the  real 
meaning  and  true  significance  of  this  splendid  throng  in 
the  Academy  of  Music  to-night? 

It  is  not  to  make  one  man  the  object  of  temporary  atten- 
tion ;  it  is  not  to  honor  a  particular  church ;  it  is  to  illus- 
trate the  beauty  of  Christian  charity,  the  happiness  which 
comes  from  Christian  concord. 

If  there  is  anything  more  characteristic  than  another  of 
the  times  we  live  in,  it  is  the  fact,  that  while  there  was 
never  more  denominational  zeal  and  activity  than  now, 
associated  with  it  there  is  a  determination  to  bring  to  the 
front  the  real  unity  which  binds  all  the  branches  of  the 
Christian  family  together  in  one  harmonious  and  happy 
brotherhood.  There  is  an  uprising  and  advancing  tidal 
wave  of  gospel  charity,  which,  I  trust,  will  continue  to  rise 
and  flow  until  it  sweeps  away  all  the  bigotry,  the  intoler- 
ance, and  the  exclusiveness  which  have  so  long  deformed 
and  degraded  Christendom. 


The  Anniversaries.  347 

In  no  city  in  our  land  is  there  a  more  kindly  feeling 
among  the  different  denominations  than  in  Richmond.  It 
had  an  early  manifestation  among  the  pastors  who  labored 
together  in  harmony  until  they  went  up  to  renew  their  in- 
tercourse in  the  world  of  love.  Their  spirit  has  descended 
to  our  day,  and  so  prevails  among  us  that  were  a  minister 
of  any  denomination  to  proclaim  arrogant  and  intolerant 
claims  in  behalf  of  his  own  church,  there  is  a  public  senti- 
ment in  this  community  that  would  put  him  down  and  shut 
him  up. 

The  pastors  most  beloved  and  honored  in  Richmond 
have  always  been  those  who  have  cultivated  and  mani- 
fested most  largely  the  grace  of  charity.  The  most  really 
prosperous  churches  have  been  those  whose  motto  has  been, 
"Let  brotherly  love  continue." 

We  have  a  delightful  illustration  of  the  unity  of  feeling 
which  pervades  our  churches  before  our  eyes  at  this  mo- 
ment, in  the  sympathy  and  interest  manifested  in  the 
exercises  of  this  very  hour.  This  is  neither  a  Methodist, 
Baptist,  Episcopal,  nor  Presbyterian  audience. 

What  is  it  ? 

It  is  a  fraternal  gathering  of  Christian  brethren,  met  to 
honor,  encourage,  and  love  each  other ;  met  to  be  reminded 
that  the  truths  common  to  all  the  churches  are  the  most 
important  and  precious  of  all  the  truths ;  met  that  we  may 
in  union  kindle  our  hopes  afresh  as  we  together  look  to  the 
same  dear  cross  shining  above  us  in  its  immeasurable  glory, 
and  that  with  united  hands  and  hearts  we  may  together 
press  on  to  the  land  we  love  and  are  looking  for,  assured 
that  it  is  not  a  cold  assent  to  an  article  in  the  creed,  but  the 
warm  expression  of  a  thrilling  experience  which  constrains 
us  with  one  voice  and  heart  to  exclaim,  'T  believe  in  the 

COMMUNION  OF  THE  SAINTS."" 

To  you,  my  dear  and  honored  brethren,  whose  addresses 
have  contributed  so  much  to  the  pleasure  and  profit  of  this 
commemoration  service,  I  beg  leave  to  tender  the  united 
thanks  of  the  officers  and  members  of  the  church  I  repre- 
sent. Your  coming  has  been  hailed  with  joy;  your  de- 
parture will  cause  us  grief;  but  those  who  love  the  Lord 
never  part  for  the  last  time.  They  may  so  part  on  earth, 
but  they  will  meet  again  in  the  world  of  recognition  and 
communion   in  the  glory   everlasting;    and   these   sweet 


348  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Christian  friendships  formed  on  earth  and  cemented  by  the 
blood  of  Christ  will  not  perish  by  the  stroke  of  death,  but 
will  have  a  resurrection  beyond  the  grave,  and  will  spring 
up  and  flourish  beautiful  and  immortal  in  the  paradise  of 
God! 

To  you,  my  friends  of  all  denominations,  who  have 
shown  such  an  interest  in  this  commemoration  from  the 
time  it  was  first  proposed,  whose  presence  here  to-night  and 
whose  evident  sympathy  in  these  exercises  have  added  so 
much  to  the  happiness  of  the  occasion,  to  you  I  shall  ever 
be  grateful,  and  to  the  God  who  has  put  it  into  your  hearts 
to  show  me  kindness  in  so  many  ways  and  for  so  many 
years. 

Were  the  house  I  live  in  as  large  as  my  desire  to  enter- 
tain the  friends  to  whom  I  speak  to-night,  I  would  gladly 
invite  you  there. 

But  there  will  be  room  enough  in  the  Second  Presbyte- 
rian Church,  where,  at  the  conclusion  of  these  services,  you 
will  find  a  warm  welcome,  and  a  banquet  prepared  by  the 
ladies,  to  which  all  are  most  cordially  invited. 

When  the  exercises  at  the  Academy  were  over,  the  great 
•crowd  which  rapidly  filled  and  refilled  the  church — several 
blocks  away — was  entertained  by  a  sacred  concert,  while 
they  waited  their  opportunity  of  going  into  the  lecture-room 
tc  greet  Dr.  Hoge  with  personal  congratulations. 

The  press  of  the  city  headed  their  accounts  of  this  anniver- 
sary, "A  Life  Crowned."  But  it  was  not  a  life  completed. 
The  lustrum  between  this  celebration  and  that  of  his  semi- 
centennial jubilee  was  as  full  as  any  similar  period  of  his 
life.  He  was  president  of  the  Richmond  Home  for  Old 
Ladies,  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Publication,  president 
of  the  Trustees  of  the  Hoge  Academy,  named  in  his  honor; 
a  trustee  of  Hampden-Sidney  College,  a  manager  of  the 
Virginia  Bible  Society,  a  member  of  the  International 
Sunday-school  Lesson  Committee,  one  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Arbitration  Alliance,  chaplain  of  the  First 
Regiment  of  Virginia  Volunteers,  a  member  of  R.  E.  Lee 
Camp,  U.  C.  v.,  of  the  Virginia  Historical  Society,  and  of  the 


The  Anniversaries.  349 

Executive  Committee  of  the  Confederate  Publication  So- 
ciety; a  vice-president  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  So- 
ciety, and  of  several  other  Northern  societies;  legatee  of  a 
bequest  for  establishing  a  foundling  hospital,  and  member 
of  the  Prison  Association ;  and,  of  course  a  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  Pastors'  Association,  and  the  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance of  Richmond.  To  all  he  gave  time,  thought  and  labor. 
There  was  no  public  occasion  in  Richmond,  secular  or  eccle- 
siastical, in  which  some  service  was  not  demanded  from 
him ;  while  the  private  demands  upon  his  time  and  patience 
and  benevolence  were  without  number. 

He  avoided,  when  possible,  the  routine  work  of  ecclesi- 
astical courts — work  that  others  were  always  glad  to  do — 
but  gave  the  most  patient  attention  to  all  their  proceedings ; 
never  obtruding  himself,  but  by  his  wisdom  and  tact  and 
experience,  seeking  to  prevent  mistakes  and  to  maintain  the 
high  standard  which  he  felt  such  bodies  ought  to  maintain. 
Once,  when  he  felt  that  the  Synod  of  Virginia  had  forgotten 
its  proper  dignity,  he  wished  to  recall  it  to  its  proper  place 
without  assuming  to  himself  the  office  of  a  censor.  Just  then 
he  had  to  make  a  little  speech  about  the  Central  Presby- 
terian, which  he  turned  into  the  occasion  he  sought.  Speak- 
ing of  his  own  connection  with  it,  and  his  five  years'  associa- 
tion with  Dr.  T.  V.  Moore,  as  his  colleague,  he  paused  to  pay 
a  tribute  to  Dr.  Moore's  ability  as  preacher,  pastor,  and  eccle- 
siastic; to  his  familiarity  with  all  precedents  and  rules  of 
order  of  deliberative  bodies ;  to  his  reverential  regard  for  an 
ecclesiastical  court,  legislating  by  the  authority  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  interests  of  his  kingdom,  and  never  losing  sight 
of  the  dignity  and  decorum,  the  reverence  and  serious  de- 
votion that  became  a  court  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Many 
thanked  him  for  the  kindly  way  in  which  his  rebuke  was 
given. 

One  of  his  favorite  ideas  was  that  the  meetings  of  our 
church  courts  did  not  make  the  proper  impression  on  the 
public  because  of  the  way  in  which  they  were  reported — 


350  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

giving  merely  the  dry  bones  of  what  was  done,  without  the 
flesh  and  blood  and  heart  of  the  proceedings.  To  his  cousin, 
Dr.  W.  S.  Lacy,  he  wrote : 

Another  way  of  reporting  would  be  to  put  the  reader, 
in  imagination,  in  the  place  where  the  synod  meets,  to 
sketch  in  a  few  lines  the  appearance  of  the  body,  to  make 
brief  mention  of  prominent  delegates,  to  say  something 
about  the  audience,  the  adaptation  of  the  building  for 
speeches  made  on  the  floor;  and  then,  having  by  a  few 
graphic  touches  made  the  reader  see  what  was  in  the  eye  of 
the  writer,  proceed  to  select  among  the  topics  discussed 
only  such  as  are  interesting  to  the  public  at  large,  by  reason 
of  their  intrinsic  importance,  or  by  the  ability  with  which 
they  were  discussed,  taking  care  to  give  the  cream  of  the 
speeches  themselves,  the  manner  of  their  delivery,  and  the 
impression  made  on  the  audience.  At  every  synod,  there 
are,  say,  half  a  dozen  speeches  made,  so  full  of  information, 
so  full  of  great  truths,  impressively  urged,  containing  just 
the  things  which  would  interest  the  public  that  it  is  unfor- 
tunate indeed  that  they  are  unheard  and  unknown  beyond 
the  walls  within  which  they  are  delivered.  These  discus- 
sions, of  which  the  people  know  nothing,  guide  the  synod 
to  the  conclusions  to  which  it  comes.  They  are  the  real 
forces  which  determine  results.  They  are  to  ecclesiastical 
questions  what  the  speeches  of  senators  are  to  political 
questions.  What  would  be  said  if  the  public  could  only 
read  the  laws  enacted  by  Congress  without  having  the 
opportunity  of  reading  the  speeches  of  those  who  framed 
them?  We  may  learn  something  here  from  what  is  done 
by  the  great  political  bodies  into  which  the  country  is 
divided.  A  few  thousands  hear  the  arguments  of  the 
speakers — millions  read  them.  The  principles  of  govern- 
ment are  thus  popularized ;  the  intelligence  of  the  people 
is  cultivated,  information  is  diffused,  voters  are  enabled 
to  come  to  clear  convictions  with  regard  to  the  wisest  and 
best  platform  of  principles  on  which  the  patriotic  should 
plant  themselves,  and  by  which  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try may  be  best  secured,  and  the  result  is  determined  by  the 
ballots  which  decide  the  issue. 

Again,  such  a  reporter  will  introduce  to  his  readers  many 
things  of  interest  not  noticed  in  the  reports  of  those  who 


The  Anniversaries.  351 

tell  only  what  is  done  and  not  what  is  said.  These  episodes 
often  interest  the  audiences  present — as  they  would  the 
outside  public,  if  informed  of  them — quite  as  much  as  the 
regular  business  of  the  synod ;  but  as  they  are  to  have  no 
place  in  the  minutes,  they  find  no  place  in  the  reports  which 
are  given  to  the  secular  newspapers. 

Of  his  own  occupations  about  this  time  he  wrote  to  Dr. 
Lacy  (November  5,  1891)  : 

My  Dear  Cousin  :  I  have  frequent  occasion  to  admire 
your  considerate  regard  for  my  time  and  convenience  when 
you  confer  with  me  about  any  work  I  am  requested  to 
undertake. 

You  probably  understand  better  than  others  the  exacting 
nature  of  my  duties  and  the  pressure  under  which  I  live.  I 
think  it  was  La  Place  who  said  if  he  had  been  consulted  he 
would  have  made  a  better  world  than  this ;  and  he  sug- 
gested certain  improvements  in  the  arrangements  of 
things.  Without  any  sympathy  with  such  presumption  I 
often  find  myself  wishing  I  could  lengthen  the  day  by  an 
hour  or  two.  I  do  not  shrink  from  work — I  revel  in  it — 
but  I  often  long  for  more  time  in  which  to  do  it.  While 
trying  to  keep  even  with  my  engagements,  and  finding 
myself  drifting  behind,  I  say,  this  week  is  one  of  unusual 
extras,  but  next  week  I  will  have  nothing  more  than  my 
regular  routine  to  go  through,  when,  presto !  I  find  it 
fuller  of  the  unexpected  than  the  preceding  week. 

Take  this  week  for  a  sample.  Beginning  with  last  Sun- 
day morning  and  ending  with  next  Saturday  night,  I  find 
I  have  fourteen  engagements  in  the  way  of  committee 
meetings,  sermons,  addresses,  etc.,  in  addition  to  visits  to  be 
made  and  received,  letters  to  write,  and  the  daily  horseback 
rides  which  keep  me  fresh  and  young. 

Since  I  came  home  from  my  summer  vacation,  I  have 
been  trying  to  find  time  to  do  several  things.  Our  Com- 
mittee of  Publication  has  requested  me  to  allow  them  to 
publish  my  Old  Market  Hall  sermons ;  Professor  Henne- 
man,  of  Hampden-Sidney,  has  asked  me  to  prepare  for  him 
a  sketch  of  my  grandfather  Hoge,  and  I  have  watched  for 
an  opportunity  to  begin  my  sermon  or  address  on  the 
Claims  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  to  say  nothing  of  other 
calls  of  a  similar  nature,  such  as  a  history  of  my  running 


352  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  blockade  and  my  mission  to  England  during  the  war. 
All  these  undertakings  are  hindered  solely  for  want  of 
time,  every  hour  being  absorbed  by  daily  demands.  It  is  a 
very  unsatisfactory  life,  but  I  see  no  help  for  it.  Under 
the  circumstances,  you  see,  it  is  impossible  to  set  any  time 
for  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  Norfolk  League. 
I  can  only  execute  my  intention  when  an  opportunity  for 
it  occurs,  if  it  ever  should.  I  regret,  more  than  you  can, 
my  inability  to  be  more  definite. 

A  year  or  so  later  he  wrote  his  nephew : 

My  Dear  Peyton  :  As  the  months  wear  on,  so  far  from 
bringing  any  respite  from  my  toils,  they  add  to  the  number 
of  engagements  which  render  life  a  chronic  scuffle  to  keep' 
from  drifting  far  behind  what  I  undertake  to  accomplish. 
It  is  a  work,  too,  that  seems  only  to  consume  time  without 
producing  any  adequate  results.  It  is  only  the  incidental 
good  that  I  may  do  for  the  immediate  present  in  the  innu- 
merable channels  of  public  service  that  gives  me  any  conso- 
lation. My  influence  may  be  providentially  limited  to  my 
contemporaries,  and  I  must  be  content  and  thankful  that  I 
can  sometimes  see  how  far-reaching  it  is,  though  it  be  only 
like  the  widening  circles  on  the  surface  of  the  lake  into 
which  a  stone  has  been  cast.     I  have  just  had  a  striking 

illustration  of  this  in  the  death  of  Major ,  our  eminent 

lawyer,  who  was  suddenly  stricken  down  during  his  visit  to 
Chicago.  He  was  so  much  impressed  by  the  prayer  I 
offered  at  the  interment  of  Mr.  Davis  that  he  took  the  paper 
containing  it  to  Chicago,  and  during  the  forenoon  of  the 
day  on  which  he  died  he  read  it  to  a  company  of  relations- 
and  friends  with  such  emphasis  and  expression,  that  when 
he  finished  the  reading,  the  company  was  in  tears.  To- 
night I  have  been  to  see  his  bereaved  widow,  and  the  great- 
est consolation  she  now  has  is  in  the  fact  that  one  of  his  last 
acts  was  the  impressive  reading  of  a  prayer. 

How  little  did  I  think  when  I  composed  it  that  it  would 
be  read  and  commented  on  all  over  the  country. 

Probably  nothing  that  Dr.  Hoge  ever  did  received  more 
universal  commendation  than  this  prayer.^     Just  after  its 

'  See  Appendix,  page  496. 


The  Anniversaries.  353 

delivery  a  gentleman  who  was  personally  interested  in  Dr. 
Hoge  heard  some  one  remark,  "It  was  worth  the  whole 
journey  here  just  to  hear  that  prayer."  He  was  so  struck 
with  the  remark  that  he  inquired  who  the  speaker  was.  It 
was  General  Stephen  D.  Lee,  of  Mississippi.  His  earlier 
address,^  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Davis,  was  also  the  subject 
of  much  congratulation.  On  such  occasions,  as  in  all  his 
personal  influence,  his  aim  was  to  allay  the  bitterness  of  past 
strife,  and  direct  the  mind  and  heart  to  the  responsibilities  of 
the  great  future  and  to  the  needs  of  this  broad  land.  In  fact, 
while  he  had  been  one  of  the  most  ardent  of  Confederates, 
it  is  doubtful  if  any  one  did  more  after  the  war  to  reunite 
the  sections  by  his  own  influence  and  personal  associations. 
After  a  visit  to  Cornell  University,  Dr.  Adams  wrote  him : 

Your  coming  to  us  was  peculiarly  gratifying,  in  many 
ways.  It  seems  to  me  there  is  every  reason  why  the  people 
of  the  North  and  South  should  be  drawn  closely  together 
by  every  possible  tie.  Such  acquaintances  as  it  is  possible 
to  make  on  errands  of  this  kind  cannot  but  tend  to  soften 
the  sectional  asperity,  and  bind  our  people  more  sympa- 
thetically and  warmly  together.  Aside  from  this  consider- 
ation, your  visit  gave  great  pleasure,  not  only  to  my  mother 
and  myself,  but  also  to  all  the  people  of  the  university, 
and  I  wish  very  heartily  to  thank  you  for  what  you  did 
for  us. 

I  was  very  much  pleased  by  your  address  on  Stonewall 
Jackson.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  remembrance  of  him  is 
one  of  the  sacred  possessions  of  your  people,  and  they  are 
fortunate  in  having  his  life  and  character  set  forth  with 
such  remarkable  power  and  eloquence  at  the  time  his  monu- 
ment was  unveiled.- 

The  address  given  at  Boston  gave  me  a  new  impulse  on 
the  subject  of  Christian  unity  and  cooperation. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  the  acquaintance  we  have  so  pleas- 
andy  begun,  may  not  end  with  this  single  visit. 

'  Appendix,  p.  463. 

«Dr.  Hoge  had  sent  Dr.  Adams  copies  of  his  Stonewall  Jackson  ora- 
tion and  of  his  Boston  address  on  his  return  from  this  visit,  which  was 
one  of  the  most  interesting  he  ever  made  anywhere. 


354  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Meanwhile,  the  demands  for  service  at  distant  points  had 
grown  so  numerous  that  he  meditated  some  more  practical 
method  of  meeting  them  than  a  readjustment  of  the  solar 
system.  He  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
these  things.  The  proper  representation  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  on  public  occasions;  the  needs  of  his  brethren  for 
help  in  special  emergencies,  and  on  extraordinary  occasions ; 
the  vast  good  to  be  accomplished  if  one  could  respond  to  all 
the  appeals  for  college  addresses,  lectures,  dedication  services 
and  the  like ;  and  the  lack  in  the  Presbyterian  system  of  any 
one  to  do  such  work  except  busy  pastors  like  himself. 

In  view  of  this  need,  it  had  been  for  some  time  his  earnest 
hope  that  he  would  be  able  to  give  up  in  whole  or  in  part 
the  responsibilities  of  the  pastorate,  that  he  might  give  his 
remaining  days  to  the  help  of  his  brethren  and  to  putting  in 
permanent  form  some  of  the  accumulations  of  a  life-time; 
but  these  hopes  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  He  had 
lost  a  competent  fortune  in  the  collapse  of  the  Confederacy. 
His  hopes  of  a  competency  in  his  old  age,  which  would 
enable  him  to  carry  out  this  wish,  were  frustrated  by  the 
failure  of  investments  in  the  Northwest  through  the  depre- 
ciation of  values  following  the  panic  of  1893.  What  was 
left  he  had  to  conserve  for  the  sake  of  those  dependent  upon 
him,  especially  as  the  ample  life  insurance  he  had  taken  in 
his  young  manhood  was  based  upon  a  stupid  principle,  by 
which  its  value  continually  shrank  the  longer  he  lived  and 
the  more  he  paid.^ 

'  This  may  seem  incredible  in  this  a.2:e,  but  the  policy  dated  from  the 
early  days  of  insurance.  Policy-holders  paid  only  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  premium,  giving  their  note  for  the  other  fifty  per  cent.  It  was 
expected  that  the  profits  would  cancel  these  notes.  Instead,  they  accu- 
mulated at  compound  interest.  Governor  Randolph  once  put  insur- 
ance experts  to  work  upon  the  case,  with  the  result  that  the  company 
cancelled  all  outstanding  notes  and  gave  a  $12,000  policy  instead  of  the 
original  policy  for  $20,000.  But  the  notes  began  again,  and  at  his 
death  his  estate  received  $7,400.  He  had  paid  in  over  $18,000.  It 
would  have  been  supposed  that  one  of  the  old  line  standard  companies 
would  have  given  its  earliest  patrons  the  benefit  of  the  more  liberal 
principles  of  modern  policies. 


The  Anniversaries.  355 

Disappointed  in  this  direction,  he  sought  to  accomplish  the 
same  result — at  least  in  part — by  getting  an  assistant  or 
associate  in  his  pastorate.  His  congregation  were  ready- 
to  aid  him  in  this,  and  he  sought  long  and  anxiously  for 
the  suitable  man.  He  only  found  him  the  last  year  of  his 
life. 

And  so  the  toil  went  on,  as  he  endeavored  without  assist- 
ance to  fulfil  the  obligations  of  his  large  church,  and  to  re- 
spond as  far  as  possible  to  outside  demands. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  peculiarities  of  this  time  was 
the  way  in  which  he  spent  his  summer  vacations.  With  all 
his  love  of  foreign  travel,  with  all  the  opportunities  open  to 
him  of  visiting  charming  homes,  and  the  attractive  resorts  of 
Virginia — at  almost  any  one  of  which  he  was  cordially  wel- 
comed as  the  guest  of  the  proprietors— he  spent  his  vacations 
year  after  year  supplying  pulpits  in  cities  as  hot  as  his  own. 
The  week  he  spent  as  he  pleased,  and  on  Sunday  preached  to 
overflowing  congregations  at  the  time  when  "everybody  is 
out  of  town." 

Three  summers  he  spent  this  way  in  Baltimore  at  the 
Brown  Memorial  and  Associate  Reformed  Churches,  and  one 
in  Milwaukee;  and  why  did  a  man  over  seventy  thus  spend 
himself  ?  That  he  might  add  two  or  three  hundred  dollars 
to  the  four  or  five  hundred  that  he  contributed  out  of  his 
income  to  the  benevolent  causes  of  the  church !  Shame  upon 
the  Christians  with  their  hundred  thousands  and  millions  of 
the  Lord's  money,  that  the  causes  of  the  kingdom  should  be 
in  such  need  as  to  require  such  sacrifices ! 

Of  this  summer  work  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Sample,  of  New 
York  (November  i,  1892)  : 

I  was  never  more  thoroughly  well  than  I  am  this  autumn, 
although  I  worked  steadily  through  the  entire  summer 
without  a  day's  rest.  It  was  the  hottest  summer,  too, 
known  for  many  years. 

I  had  to  go  to  Bridgeton,  N.  J.,  on  the  20th  of  July  to 
deliver  a  centennial  oration.     It  was  a  dav  of  the  most 


356  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

intense  heat,  so  statisticians  assure  us,  for  twenty-one  years. 
I  spoke  in  a  grove  to  two  or  three  thousand  people  in  the 
afternoon,  the  mercury  marking  one  hundred  and  one  de- 
grees, and  made  my  oration  at  night  in  the  church,  but  do 
not  know  what  record  the  thermometer  made  of  the  temper- 
ature. It  exceeded  anything  I  ever  experienced,  and  when 
I  returned  to  my  room  at  the  hotel,  I  sat  most  of  the  night 
in  the  window,  sucking  lemons  and  drinking  ice-water.  I 
passed  the  ordeal,  however,  so  well  that  I  am  converted  to 
the  theory  of  evolution  from  the  lower  animals,  and  think 
that  one  of  my  great  ancestors  was  a  salamander. 

While  Dr.  Hoge  was  so  busy  serving  others  he  was 
equally  anxious  to  secure  from  others,  for  the  benefit  of  his 
own  people,  the  results  of  special  studies  out  of  his  own  line 
of  work.  He  became  much  interested  in  Dr.  W.  W.  Moore's 
popular  discussions  of  the  ancient  monuments  and  the  light 
recent  investigations  threw  upon  the  biblical  record,  and 
urged  Dr.  Moore  to  deliver  several  of  these  lectures  in  his 
church — which  he  did,  with  the  delightful  effect  that  always 
follows  his  v^ork.  The  same  studies  were  afterwards  em- 
bodied in  his  lectures  on  the  Stone  foundation  at  Princeton, 

Somewhat  earlier  he  had  been  interested  in  Dr.  Sample's 
lectures  on  "Beacon  Lights  of  the  Reformation."  Early  in 
1 89 1  they  exchanged  pulpits,  and  Dr.  Hoge  wrote  of  the 
great  interest  of  his  people  in  the  sermons  of  his  friend.  Dr. 
Sample  published  a  letter,  giving  his  impressions  of  Rich- 
mond and  of  Dr.  Hoge's  church.  Referring  to  a  remark  in 
this  letter,  Dr.  Hoge  w^rote : 

I  noticed  that  in  your  published  letter  you  touched  on  a 
peculiarity  I  could  never  explain,  and  which,  I  am  told,  our 
physicians  sometimes  comment  on — my  ability  to  sustain 
long  protracted  labor  without  fatigue.  Well,  a  few  Sun- 
days ago,  I  had  preached  in  the  morning,  had  a  funeral  in 
my  church  at  two  p.  m.,  and  another  funeral  at  three  p.  m., 
after  which  I  went  to  Hollywood  to  the  burial,  and  as  I 
could  not  get  back  by  four  o'clock,  Dr.  Fair  preached  for 
me  at  that  hour,  and  I  preached  for  him  in  return  for  the 


The  Anniversaries.  357 

favor,  at  eight  p.  m.  I  never  felt  fresher  than  I  did  that 
nig-ht  after  I  came  home.  I  read  until  twelve  o'clock,  and 
got  up  the  next  morning  at  seven  o'clock,  without  the 
slightest  physical  reminder  that  I  had  done  any  work  the 
previous  day.  The  following  Friday,  I  had  three  funeral 
services  to  conduct,  one  at  ten  a.  m.,  the  second  at  twelve 
M.  and  the  third  at  four  p.  m.,  and  on  Saturday  composed 
both  of  my  sermons  (such  as  they  were)  for  Sunday, 
having  been  so  occupied  all  the  week  with  executive  work 
that  I  had  no  possible  chance  for  study  until  Saturday. 
Whenever  I  have  a  special  pressure  of  work  on  hand  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  sit  up  until  three  or  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  then  I  always  rise  at  seven.  I  note  what  you 
say  about  the  bow  suddenly  snapping  at  last.  I  have  no 
objections  to  its  coming  that  way. 

At  length  the  five  busy  years  had  rolled  around.  The 
bow  had  not  snapped,  and  Dr.  Hoge  was  as  vigorously  at 
work  as  ever.  The  congregation  was  now  face  to  face  with 
its  fiftieth  anniversary.  Had  his  friends  known  that  he 
would  be  spared  to  them,  they  would  probably  have  de- 
ferred until  now  the  celebration  of  five  years  ago ;  but  now 
this  jubilee  must  be  celebrated  and  that  demonstration  sur- 
passed. In  its  own  line  it  could  not  be  excelled,  so  this  must 
be  made  different.  There  is  no  need  for  formal  speeches 
now — the  eulogies  of  the  former  celebration  are  fresh  in 
people's  minds,  and  have  been  put  on  permanent  record. 
This  time  let  the  people  speak.  Throw  the  doors  wide,  that 
all  may  have  a  chance  to  greet  him !  But  he  must  be  heard. 
Some  of  the  wealth  of  reminiscence  stored  in  his  heart  and 
memory  must  be  given  out  and  placed  on  record. 

For  the  first — the  public  reception — the  most  spacious  and 
suitable  place  was  the  Masonic  Temple;  but  there  was  a 
hitch.  The  constitution  did  not  permit  its  free  use  for  any 
but  Masons,  and  yet  its  officers  felt  unwilling  to  charge  rent 
for  such  a  use :  but  the  difficulty  was  soon  gotten  over.  The 
Masons  themselves  paid  the  rent  and  tendered  the  use  of  the 


358  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

building  to  the  church.  All  the  arrangements  were  made  by 
the  ladies  of  the  church,  who  extended  a  universal  invita- 
tion, besides  special  invitations  to  persons  at  a  distance. 
After  a  banquet,  to  which  Dr.  Hoge  sat  down  with  his 
family,  the  clergy  and  some  invited  guests,  came  the  public 
reception.  The  hours  announced  were  from  eight  to  ten,  but 
it  was  found  impracticable  to  restrict  it,  and  it  lasted  until 
twelve,  in  which  time  Dr.  Hoge  had  shaken  hands  with  ten 
thousand  people.  It  was  a  testimonial  such  as  is  paid  to  few 
persons  not  holding  high  civil  or  military  office.  "It  was," 
as  was  said  at  the  time,  "a  grand  civic  and  military  demon- 
stration that  would  be  unique  in  the  history  of  any  city  and 
State — a  concentering  of  all  creeds,  all  classes,  all  profes- 
sions," proclaiming  Dr.  Hoge,  as  many  said,  to  be  the  "first 
citizen  of  Virginia." 

Some  of  the  special  incidents  of  the  evening  were  thus 
described  at  the  time : 

The  first  impressive  formal  function  of  the  reception  was 
the  passing  in  review  before  Dr.  Hoge  of  a  delegation  of  the 
veterans  of  Lee  Camp  Soldiers'  Home,  headed  by  the  com- 
mandant, Captain  Charles  P.  Bigger.  As  the  veterans 
marched  past,  each  gave  the  Doctor  a  hearty  handshake,  and 
one  of  them  presented  him,  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of  the 
Home,  with  a  handsome  bouquet,  while  another  handed  him, 
as  a  testimonial  from  the  inmates,  a  large  silk  handker- 
chief, bearing  in  embroidery  the  State  and  the  Confederate 
colors. 

A  few  minutes  later,  the  ladies  of  the  Hollywood  Memo- 
rial Association  entered  the  hall  in  a  body,  and  after  they  had 
been  grouped  in  a  semi-circle  in  front  of  the  canopy,  Mr. 
Joseph  Bryan,  speaking  for  them,  presented  Dr.  Hoge  with 
a  superb  gold-lined  silver  berry  bowl.  The  bowl  is  a  unique 
and  artistic  example  of  the  silversmith's  art.  The  sides  are 
fluted,  and  rise  to  a  rim  of  repousse  open  work,  and  on  the 
bottom  of  the  testimonial  is  this  inscription : 


The  Anniversaries.  359 

REVEREND  MOSES  D.  HOGE,  D.  D., 

FROM 

The  Ladies  of  the  Hollywood  Memorial  Association, 

In  loving  remembrance  of  his  devotion  to  the  Confederate  cause,  and 

in  grateful  appreciation  of  his  valuable  assistance  to  them  in 

perpetuating  the  memory  of  the  Confederate  dead. 

February  26,  1895. 

Judge  E.  C.  Minor  held  the  bowl,  and,  in  performing  the 
office  of  presentation,  Mr.  Bryan  said : 

Dr.  Hoge:  No  exercises  in  commemoration  of  your 
labors  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  for  the  good  of 
your  fellow-men,  could  be  complete  if  a  recognition  of  your 
services  to  the  Confederate  soldiers  were  omitted. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  recite  them,  but  I  doubt,  sir,  if  in 
the  retrospect  of  your  life,  your  memory  will  recall  any 
events  with  sweeter  or  sadder  satisfaction  than  those  in 
which  it  was  your  mission  to  look  in  the  pale,  wan  face  of 
the  dying  soldier,  and  commend  his  soul  to  the  God  who 
gave  it ;  and  afterwards  piously,  and  with  sacred  service, 
to  lay  his  body,  cold  in  death,  within  the  bosom  of  our 
mother  earth.  While  this,  sir,  has  been  no  uncommon  ex- 
perience with  you,  I  vouchsafe  to  say  that  it  was  a  service 
you  never  rendered  without  a  renewed  sense  of  its  sacred- 
ness,  and  a  fresh  glow  of  patriotic  devotion  to  your  State 
and  her  noble  defendants  kindling  in  your  heart. 

To  the  ladies  of  the  Hollywood  Memorial  Association 
was  committed  the  holy  trust  of  keeping  green,  to  the  living 
eye,  the  turf  that  wraps  the  clay  of  those,  our  never-to-be- 
forgotten  heroes. 

The  members  of  this  association,  sir,  since  its  first  organ- 
ization, nearly  thirty  years  ago,  have  always  felt  that  in  you 
they  had  a  true  and  tried,  and  strong  friend.  They  have 
never  felt  that  they  were  imposing  anything  but  a  duty 
gladly  done  when  they  have  asked  your  counsel  or  your 
aid,  and  freely  has  it  been  asked,  and  as  freely  has  it  been 
given. 

On  this  occasion,  sir,  they  desire  to  unite  with  others  of 
your  friends  to  congratulate  you  on  this  anniversary  of  the 
commencement  of  your  notable  life  in  this  city,  but  they 
desire  especially  to  pay  a  tribute  of  love  and  gratitude  to 


360  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

you  for  your  services  to  the  Confederate  soldiers,  and  to 
the  guardians  of  their  graves,  the  Hollywood  Memorial 
Association. 

As  individuals  they  have  united  to  procure,  and  they 
now  desire  me  to  present  to  you,  this  silver  bowl  as  a  mark 
of  their  esteem  and  gratitude. 

You  have,  sir,  been  spared  the  labor  and  sorrow  which  is 
the  usual  lot  of  those  who  have  passed  three  score  years 
and  ten,  but  "underneath  you  were  the  everlasting  arms." 
May  you,  like  the  great  prophet  of  Israel,  live  on  with  your 
eye  undimmed  and  your  natural  strength  unabated,  until 
there  comes 

"Sunset  and  evening  star, 
And  one  clear  call  for  thee, 
And  may  there  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar 
When  you  put  out  to  sea. 

"And  though  from  out  our  bourn  of  time  and  place 
The  flood  may  bear  thee  far, 
You'll  see  your  pilot  face  to  face 
When  you  have  crossed  the  bar." 

In  accepting  the  bowl  and  responding  to  Mr.  Bryan,  Dr. 
Hoge  said : 

My  Dear  Mr.  Bryan  :  This  is  one  of  the  most  delight- 
ful surprises  of  this  memorable  evening.  Had  I  anticipated 
such  an  honor  as  the  gathering  of  these  ladies  of  the  Holly- 
wood Memorial  Association,  and  the  presentation  of  their 
beautiful  gift  in  words  as  kind  as  those  you  have  addressed 
to  me,  I  surely  would  have  tried,  at  least,  to  frame  some 
response  worthy  of  the  occasion ;  but  you  must  take  what 
springs  spontaneously  from  my  heart,  deeply  moved  as  I 
am  by  this  token  of  regard  from  an  association  which  we 
have  all  learned  to  appreciate  as  one  of  the  noblest  ever 
formed,  both  in  its  character  and  purposes. 

There  are  many  renowned  cemeteries  in  the  world,  which 
attract  travellers  from  all  lands,  because  of  the  immortal 
dead  who  have  found  their  last  resting  places  within  their 
enclosures,  but  there  is  one  cemetery,  the  very  mention  of 
which  awakens  our  tenderest  memories,  and  which  is 
endeared  to  us  by  the  most  sacred  associations. 

In  Hollywood  are  to  be  found  the  stately  monuments  of 


The  Anniversaries.  361 

-some  of  the  great  leaders  of  our  Confederate  struggle ; 
upon  the  shafts  which  rise  above  them  are  engraved  the 
inscriptions  which  tell  us  of  their  courage,  their  patriotism, 
and  sublime  devotion  to  duty ;  but  what  shall  I  say  of  the 
wind-swept  hill,  where  we  find  what  we  call  the  "Soldiers' 
Section,"  where  lie  whole  battalions  of  the  men  who  sleep 
in  lowly  graves,  unmarked  by  stately  shafts  covered  with 
memorial  epitaphs?  I  will  say  this:  but  for  the  heroic 
and  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  patriotic  privates  who 
fought  in  the  ranks,  there  never  would  have  risen  over  the 
dust  of  the  great  leaders  to  whom  I  have  referred,  the 
sculptured  monuments  which  celebrate  their  deeds  and 
perpetuate  their  fame. 

It  has  been  owing  to  the  untiring  efforts  of  the  ladies  of 
the  Hollywood  Memorial  Association,  that  the  remains  of 
the  fallen  Confederate  soldiers  have  been  gathered  from 
all  the  battle-fields,  from  Manassas  to  Gettysburg,  that  they 
might  have  their  final  resting  places  side  by  side,  even  as 
during  life,  they  marched  together,  fought  together,  and 
together  fell  on  the  field  of  their  fame  and  glory. 

My  honored  friend,  you  have  not  exaggerated  my  admi- 
ration for  the  Confederate  soldier.  When  I  meet  one  of  the 
old  battle-scarred  veterans  on  the  street,  as  I  extend  my 
hand  to  grasp  his,  sometimes  the  expected  hand  is  not 
placed  in  mine.  His  good  right  arm  was  shattered  in  the 
rfight.  He  now  wears  an  empty  sleeve.  The  empty  sleeve ! 
The  sight  of  that  empty  sleeve  makes  my  heart  full.  I 
salute  that  sure  credential,  bearing  its  mute  testimony  to  the 
fact  that  he,  at  least,  has  done  his  duty. 

I  have  not  made  a  response  worthy  of  your  congratula- 
tion, or  of  the  splendid  testimonial  of  the  Ladies'  Memorial 
Association,  which  I  will  ever  value  for  its  intrinsic  beauty, 
and  still  more  because  of  the  inscription  it  bears,  for  which 
I  shall  be  forever  grateful. 

When  the  members  of  the  association  had  withdrawn, 
R.  E.  Lee  Camp,  Confederate  Veterans,  of  which  Dr.  Hoge 
is  an  honorary  member,  paid  their  respects  to  him  in  a  body, 
and  immediately  after  that  organization  came  the  Board 
of  Managers  of  the  congregation  of  Beth  Ahaba,  v^rhich  is 
constituted  of  Messrs.  Moses  Millhiser,  president;    N.  W. 


362  Moses  Drury  Hoge, 

Nelson,  vice-president ;  William  Lovenstein,  secretary ;  Ju- 
lius Straus,  treasurer;  Isaac  Held,  financial  secretary; 
Jacob  May,  E.  Gunst,  Isaac  Thalhimer,  E.  Bottigheimer, 
Jacob  Edel,  and  Israel  Stern. 

These  gentlemen  were  present  to  perform  one  of  the  most 
interesting  ceremonies  of  the  evening,  which  was  opened  by 
Senator  Lovenstein  stepping  forward  and  saying; 

Dr.  Hoge  :  We  are  here  as  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the 
Congregation  Beth  Ahaba  of  this  city  to  present  to  you  the 
resolutions  adopted  by  the  board,  and  which  are  not  only 
expressive  of  their  sentiments,  but  of  those  of  every  mem- 
ber of  our  congregation.  We  can  assure  you,  my  dear  sir, 
that  while  we  are  representatives  of  another  faith,  there  are 
no  citizens  of  this  city  who  more  heartily  join  in  congratu- 
lations to  you  on  having  reached  the  fiftieth  year  of  the 
pastorate  of  your  church,  and  are  proud  of  being  residents 
of  the  same  city  which  you  have  graced  so  long  with  your 
many  acts  of  kindness,  love,  and  affection.  I  cannot  at  this 
time  detain  this  vast  concourse  who  desire  to  pay  their  re- 
spects to  you,  but  as  we  have  expressed  in  those  resolutions, 
we  wish  you  many  more  years  of  usefulness  and  honor  in; 
this  community. 

The  resolutions  are  exquisitely  engrossed  on  parchment 
and  inclosed  in  a  massive  natural  wood  hand-carved  frame 
overlaid  with  gold  leaf.    They  read : 

Richmond,  Va.,  February  ib,  1895. 

The  Board  of  Managers  of  Congregation  Beth  Ahaba. 
deem  it  a  pleasure  and  a  duty  alike  to  give  expression  to  the 
sentiments  of  its  members  on  the  occasion  of  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Dr.  Moses  Drury 
Hoge. 

It  is  by  the  infinite  grace  of  God  that  Dr.  Hoge  has  been 
permitted  to  fill  out  fifty  years  of  pastorate,  and  with  one 
congregation,  the  Second  Presbyterian  congregation  of  the 
city  of  Richmond.  Though  connected  with  one  congrega- 
tion, Dr.  Hoge  belongs  to  all  men.  The  half  century  of  his 
ministry  has  been  filled  with  earnest  and  fruitful  work, 
done  in  the  service  of  God  and  for  the  happiness  of  man,. 


The  Anniversaries.  363, 

through  all  which  time  the  distinguished  jubilate,  while 
never  for  a  moment  untrue  to  his  own  convictions,  yet  has 
so  served  the  community  at  large,  that  the  followers  of  all 
faiths  have  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his  scholarship,  his 
eloquence,  his  broad  and  generous  sympathy;  and  it  is 
hereby 

Resolved,  That  Congregation  Beth  Ahaba  most  heartily 
joins  in  the  jubilee  celebration  given  in  honor  of  Rev.  Dr. 
M.  D.  Hoge,  through  its  Board  of  Managers  gives  voice 
to  its  appreciation  of  the  noble  and  unceasing  labor  which 
Dr.  Hoge  has  performed,  not  only  for  his  own  congrega- 
tion, but  for  the  city  of  Richmond. 

Resolved,  That  it  tenders  to  Dr.  Hoge  this  expression  of 
these  sentiments,  with  the  heartfelt  wishes  for  his  continued 
health  and  strength,  and  the  deep  and  earnest  prayer  that 
he  may  be  spared  for  many,  many  years  to  prosecute  the 
noble  work  in  which  he  is  engaged. 

Edward  N.  Calisch,  Rabbi, 
Moses  Millhiser,  President, 
William  Lovenstein,  Secretary, 
Isaac  Held, 
Jacob  Edel, 

Committee. 

Dr.  Hoge  was  visibly  touched  by  this  tribute  from  his 
Jewish  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  and  responded  to  Senator 
Lovenstein's  address  as  follows : 

My  Honored  Friends  :  It  is  not  only  personally  gratify- 
ing to  me  that  one  with  whom  I  have  so  long  had  such 
pleasant  relations,  should  be  the  organ  of  the  Congregation 
of  Beth  Ahaba  in  presenting  their  congratulations  and  kind 
wishes,  but  I  regard  it  as  a  high  compliment  that  they 
should  be  tendered  to  me  by  one  who  has  himself  been 
honored  for  so  many  years  by  our  fellow-citizens  with  posi- 
tions of  high  trust  and  responsibility,  and  who  has  so  faith- 
fully discharged  the  duties  entrusted  to  him  as  to  merit  the 
confidence  and  appreciation  of  our  whole  people. 

I  assure  you  that  these  testimonials  of  the  esteem  of  the 
congregation  you  represent  have  deeply  touched  my  heart, 
and  will  be  a  memory  to  be  cherished  by  me  to  the  end  of 
life. 


364  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

You  have  been  pleased  to  state  that  the  resolutions  of 
respect  and  affection  adopted  by  your  board  come  from  the 
representatives  of  a  faith  different  from  my  own,  but  allow 
me  to  assure  you  that  this  makes  the  compliment  all  the 
greater,  and  gives  me  a  stronger  reason  for  appreciating  it. 

In  my  travels  over  the  world,  I  have  visited  many  of  the 
great  libraries,  which  contain  the  accumulated  treasure  of 
the  world's  best  thought,  but  in  each  library  I  have  found 
one  book  which  is  filled  from  beginning  to  end  with  the 
histories,  the  prophecies,  the  psalms,  and  the  epistles  com- 
posed by  Jewish  authors.  These  are  the  writers  who 
have  made  the  most  ineffaceable  mark  on  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  world,  and  who  have  been  the  sources  of  those 
divine  influences  which  have  contributed  most  largely  to 
the  world's  true  progress. 

In  accepting  the  testimonial  you  have  so  kindly  pre- 
sented, be  assured  that  it  will  have  a  conspicuous  place  in 
my  house,  and  will  form  one  of  the  most  valued  of  my 
family  treasures. 

Ere  this  ceremony  was  over,  the  military,  consisting  of  the 
First  Regiment,  the  Howitzers,  the  Stuart  Horse  Guard  and 
the  Blues,  had  arrived,  and  were  endeavoring  to  make  their 
way  into  the  building,  and  through  the  dense  crowd. 

Dr.  Hoge  stood  the  ordeal  of  hand-shaking  wonderfully, 
and  had  a  word  for  each  one  presented. 

Gradually  an  avenue  w^as  opened  through  the  great  throng, 
and  the  military  review  which  followed  was  one  of  the  most 
attractive  features  of  the  reception.  The  color  guard  of  the 
First  Regiment,  of  which  regiment  Dr.  Hoge  was  chaplain, 
formed  around  him,  their  flags  drooping  over  him,  and  to 
the  roll  of  the  drums  the  march  past  began.  First  came 
Brigadier-General  Phillips  and  staff,  and  the  field  officers 
of  the  cavalry  and  artillery  in  irregular  order ;  next  Colonel 
Jones  and  staff,  and  then  the  line  officers  and  men.  This 
scene,  as  witnessed  from  the  gallery  of  the  Grand  Lodge 
room,  was  indeed  inspiring. 

The  Governor,  accompanied  by  the  resident  members  of 
liis  staff  in  full  uniform.  Colonel  C.  O'B.  Cowardin,  chief  of 


Tpie  Anniversaries.  365. 

staff;  Colonel  John  S.  Harwood,  Colonel  Fred  Pleasants, 
General  Charles  J.  Anderson,  Colonel  Jo.  Lane  Stern,  and 
Colonel  C.  E.  Wingo,  formally  paid  his  respects  to  Dr. 
Hoge.  In  speaking  of  the  reception  after  it  was  over.  Gov- 
ernor O'Ferrall  said  it  was  the  grandest  affair  of  its  charac- 
ter he  had  ever  witnessed. 

As  soon  as  both  the  individual  visitors  and  organizations 
had  greeted  Dr.  Hoge,  they  moved  up-stairs  to  the  Grand 
Banquet  Hall,  where  the  refreshments  for  the  general  public 
were  served  from  tables  arranged  around  the  walls.  Here 
also  the  white  and  the  gold  predominated  in  the  matter  of 
decorations.  The  tables  were  six  in  nuniber,  and,  though 
the  banquet  hall  was  at  all  times  densely  crowded,  all  comers 
received  careful  attention  and  a  plenteous  repast. 

The  music  was  furnished  by  the  Howitzers'  Band,  and  all 
the  details  of  the  affair  were  managed  with  consummate 
judgment.  There  is  no  question  that  the  occasion  was  made 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  demonstrations  that  have  ever 
occurred  in  any  city.  It  has  been  well  said  that  it  rises  to 
the  plane  of  an  event  in  the  history  of  the  commonwealth. 
It  has  also  been  well  said  that  it  would  have  been  futile  ta 
attempt  a  list  even  of  the  most  prominent  persons  present. 

The  reception  took  place  on  February  26th,  the  day  before 
the  anniversary.  The  next  morning  early,  delegations  began 
to  call  with  special  gifts  or  addresses — purses  of  gold  from 
the  gentlemen  of  the  church  and  from  the  Ladies'  Benevolent 
Society;  an  engrossed  address  from  the  Hoge  Memorial 
Church,  a  marvel  of  elegance  and  taste;  a  gold  travelling 
clock  from  the  Church  of  the  Covenant ;  besides  many  per- 
sonal gifts  on  this  his  "golden  anniversary." 

For  the  memorial  service  that  evening  there  was  no  place 
but  his  church.  A  larger  audience  could  have  been  accommo- 
dated in  the  Academy,  where  the  former  celebration  was 
held,  but  one  would  have  missed  the  atmosphere  of  hallowed 
memory  with  which  the  church  was  redolent.     The  only 


366  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

setting  for  that  discourse  was  the  church  and  pulpit  where 
for  fifty  years  he  had  proclaimed  the  everlasting  gospel. 

One  felt,  as  they  heard  Dr.  Hoge  that  night,  that  the  five 
years  since  he  had  stood  before  the  audience  in  the  Academy 
had  left  their  impress.  Something  of  the  fire  was  gone; 
something  of  the  ringing  trumpet  tone  in  the  voice;  some- 
thing of  the  vigor  of  form  and  of  gesture.  Instead,  there 
had  come  something  not  less  beautiful ;  a  chastened  mellow- 
ness, like  the  soft  beauty  of  Indian  Summer ;  a  beauty  only 
less  than  that  of  spring-time,  because  we  know  that  so  soon 
"Death  and  Winter"  must  "close  the  Autumn  scene." 

The  address  is  given  in  full  in  the  Appendix,^  but  we 
must  close  our  chapter  with  its  closing  words : 

And  now,  my  friends,  this  memorial  service  is  ended. 
How  can  I  sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  to  the  thou- 
sands who  have  come  to  celebrate  this  golden  wedding, 
with  such  unanimity  and  cordiality.  I  call  it  my  golden 
wedding  because  fifty  years  ago  I  was  united  in  holy  bonds 
with  this  church.  I  was  then  in  the  springtime  of  life,  hope- 
ful and  expectant.  It  was  a  spring  followed  by  a  glowing 
summer.  The  summer  has  been  succeeded  by  a  golden  au- 
tumn, enriched  by  the  fruits  of  the  Divine  favor,  all  the 
more  precious  because  all  unmerited.  Since  the  first  year 
of  my  betrothal  to  this  church  I  have  seen  many  and  great 
changes — changes  in  the  church,  changes  in  the  city, 
changes  in  the  country,  and  in  the  world ;  but  there  is  one 
change  which  I  never  saw ;  I  have  seen  no  change  in  the 
abounding  love  and  care  of  One  who  is  "the  same  yester- 
day, to-day  and  forever."  I  stand  here  to  testify,  as  I 
never  could  so  gratefully  before,  that  amidst  all  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  mortal  life,  "His  loving  kindness  changes  not !" 

And,  now,  in  the  possession  of  a  common  faith  in  one 
Lord,  and  in  the  hope  of  one  heaven  of  harmony  and  love, 
let  us  ascribe  to  Him,  as  is  most  due,  all  honor  and  blessing 
and  glory,  evermore.    Amen. 

'Page  471. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 
Closing  Years. 


"The  clouds  that  gather  round  the  setting  sun 
Do  take  a  sober  coloring  from  an  eye 
That  hath  kept  watch  o'er  man's  mortality  ! 
Another  race  hath  been,  and  other  palms  are  won." 

— Wordsworth. 

THE  five  years  between  Dr.  Hoge's  two  great  anniver- 
saries had  been  filled  with  reminders  that  the  shadows 
were  lengthening  towards  the  evening.  Dr.  William  Brown, 
for  seventeen  years  a  member  of  his  household,  had  come  to 
the  grave  in  a  full  age.  Colonel  B.  S.  Ewell,  a  friend  from  his 
youth ;  Colonel  Ewell's  brother,  Dr.  William  Stoddert,  a  man 
of  rare  genius  and  of  almost  unparalleled  self-sacrifice;  Dr. 
Leyburn,  who  had  preached  his  ordination  sermon,  and  whose 
funeral  he  conducted ;  Dr.  Henry  C.  Alexander,  his  heredi- 
tary friend,  who  had  made  the  opening  prayer  at  his  forty- 
fifth  anniversary;  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus,  with  whom  he  had 
been  for  years  associated  on  the  International  Lesson  Com- 
mittee; had  one  by  one  passed  from  earth  and  been  com- 
memorated by  his  sympathetic  pen.  In  1893  he  visited  his 
sister,  Mrs.  Marquess,  at  the  home  of  her  son-in-law,  the 
Rev.  A.  A.  Wallace,  in  Mexico,  Mo.  Mr.  Wallace  was  the 
successor  of  Dr.  Stoddert,  and  while  there  Dr.  Hoge  took  a 
mournful  pleasure  in  visiting  the  grave  of  a  man  whom  he 
deeply  loved.  During  the  same  visit  he  met  a  son  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Watson,  of  Dardenne,  the  friend  of  his  boyhood. 
A  visit  was  at  once  arranged  to  the  father,  with  whom  he 
spent  a  delightful  day.  In  a  short  time  he,  too,  was  gone. 
;Mrs.  Marquess,  who  was  run  in  the  same  heroic  mould  as 
himself,  was  showing  plainly  the  marks  of  declining  years. 
She  lived  to  pay  him  one  more  visit  in  Richmond,  and  sur- 


368  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

vived  him  a  little  over  six  weeks,  retaining  her  fortitude 
and  strength  of  character  to  the  last.^ 

But  Dr.  Hoge,  notwithstanding  these  reminders,  could  not 
feel  that  he  was  growing  old.  There  was,  perhaps,  less  of 
bodily  vigor,  but  there  were  none  of  the  infirmities  of  age. 
His  step  was  as  elastic,  his  figure  in  the  pulpit  or  on  horse- 
back as  erect,  his  capacity  for  work,  and  readiness  to  under- 
take it,  apparently  as  inexhaustible  as  ever.  Youth  and  hope 
were  in  his  heart,  and  he  looked  upon  the  dates  that  made 
him  old  with  a  kind  of  resentment,  as  accusing  him  of  that  of 
which  he  was  not  guilty.  His  only  ailment  continued  to  be 
the  occasional  attacks  of  lumbago  or  sciatica,  to  which  he 
had  long  been  subject.  In  answer  to  a  letter  of  solicitude 
after  one  of  these  attacks,  he  wrote : 

Alexandria,  y^wz^ary  10,  i8q6. 

My  Dear  Peyton  :  Your  kind  letter  of  the  8th  instant 
was  received  just  as  I  was  leaving  home  for  this  place,  and 
I  brought  it  with  me  to  answer  it  here. 

I  am  much  obliged  for  your  solicitude  about  me  and 
your  suggested  provision  for  my  relief. 

It  would  be  ungrateful  in  me  to  complain  because  about 
once  in  three  years  I  am  seized  with  lumbago — my  only 
ailment — and  that  at  such  intervals.  I  never  had  a  cold 
or  a  headache  in  my  life,  and  no  serious  illness  of  any  kind 
since  I  lived  in  Richmond. 

I  had  not  quite  sufficiently  recovered  from  my  lameness 
to  come  here,  but  I  had  promised,  more  than  two  months 
ago,  to  address  the  Ladies'  Missionary  Society  at  its  anni- 
versary, and  so  made  the  experiment  of  the  little  journey. 
I  left  Richmond  at  twelve  m.,  and  was  to  speak  at  three- 
thirty  (early  enough  to  allow  the  country  members  of  the 
society  to  get  home  before  dark) ,  and  so  was  driven  directly 
to  the  church  from  the  station  and  reached  it  exactly  on 
time. 

It  was  the  largest  audience  of  ladies  that  I  ever  ad- 
dressed.   At  night  I  spoke  to  a  general  audience,  and  am  ti> 

1  She  died  February  22,  1899,  and  in  the  interval  after  her  brother's 
death,  in  spite  of  great  physical  suffering,  furnished  important  material 
for  this  biography. 


Closing  Years.  360 

preach  to-nic^ht  and  twice  on  Sunday.    Mr.  Rice  will  sup- 
ply my  pulpit  on  that  day. 

I  hope  you  all  keep  well.  I  know  you  keep  busy.  You 
would  not  be  a  member  of  our  family  if  you  did  not. 

I  noticed  in  a  paper  that  Cousin  James  Brookes  had  re- 
signed his  pastoral  charge,  but  no  reason  was  assigned.  I 
fear  it  was  because  of  impaired  health. 

Suppose  you  and  I  (  !)  agree  never  to  get  old,  and  never 
to  become  infirm.    Affectionately  yours, 

Moses  D.  Hoge. 

Not  long  afterwards  Dr.  Brookes  went  to  meet  his 
Lord. 

It  was  with  some  misgivings  that  Dr.  Koge's  family  and 
friends  saw  him  go  abroad  that  summer  to  attend  the  Glas- 
gow Council  of  the  Presbyterian  Alliance.  He  was  now 
nearly  seventy-eight  years  old,  and  though  his  natural  force 
w^as  not  abated,  and  his  bow  still  abode  in  strength,  the  sud- 
den snapping  of  the  bow,  which  Dr.  Sample  had  feared,  and 
for  w^hich  he  had  expressed  himself  ready,  might  come  at 
any  time. 

But  it  proved  to  be  in  every  respect  the  most  delightful 
and  successful  of  his  voyages.  Arrived  in  Glasgow  he  found 
Lord  Kelvin's  jubilee  in  progress.  In  1863  he  had  been  in 
the  same  city  at  the  time  of  Lord  Palmerston's  address  as 
Lord  Rector  of  the  University.  He  had  just  arrived,  and  it 
seemed  impossible  to  get  a  ticket,  when  opening  his  mail  he 
found  one  enclosed  in  a  note  from  a  friend,  saying  that  he 
was  just  leaving  town  and  could  not  use  it.  Would  he  have 
the  same  experience  now  ?  It  seemed  not.  The  demand  for 
tickets  was  too  great ;  but  he  had  just  called  a  cab  to  drive 
out  to  the  university  to  try  his  chances,  when  he  saw  a  pro- 
fessional looking  man  passing  by.  He  accosted  him  and 
asked  him  if  he  could  tell  him  how  he  could  secure  a  ticket. 
"Why,  yes,"  he  said,  "I  have  one  at  home,  which  I  am  un- 
able to  use  on  account  of  a  professional  engagement.  If  you 
will  go  with  me  to  my  house,  I  will  give  it  to  you  wnth  pleas- 
ure."   "Well,  just  get  with  me  into  my  cab,"  said  Dr.  Hoge, 


370  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

"and  direct  the  driver  where  to  go."  So  with  his 
usual  good  fortune  he  witnessed  this  function  of  surpassing 
interest. 

In  the  council  itself  he  was  one  of  the  most  marked  figures, 
as  he  had  been  nineteen  years  before  in  Edinburgh.  His 
principal  address  was  at  an  evening  session  devoted  to  the 
Educative  Influence  of  Presbyterianism.  Dr.  McEwan 
spoke  of  its  Influence  on  the  Individual,  Dr.  Robertson  on 
the  Family,  Dr.  Stalker  on  Social  Life,  and  Dr.  Hoge  on 
National  Life.     He  began  by  saying: 

A  nation  is  but  a  congeries  of  families,  and  what  the 
family  is,  the  nation  will  be.  Among  the  ancient  classic 
republics  there  was  much  that  was  admirable  in  law,  much 
that  was  entrancing  in  song,  much  that  was  profound  in 
philosophy,  but  the  fatal  defect  was  their  amazing  uncon- 
sciousness of  the  value  of  childhood.  The  fairest  land  of 
the  Muse,  "the  Mother  of  arts  and  of  eloquence,"  had  no 
conception  of  the  capacity  of  childhood  for  moral  develop- 
ment. She  could  take  the  Parian  marble  and  chisel  it  into 
such  forms  of  life  and  beauty  that,  when  we  look  at  it,  .'t 
seems  to  breathe  and  love  and  weep.  She  could  make  the 
marble  melt  and  seem  to  dissolve  into  tears,  but  her  own 
heart  never  melted  with  such  tenderness  as  the  humblest 
mother  of  the  Scotch  Kirk  feels  for  the  child  that  she 
knows  belongs  more  to  God  than  to  herself.  Under  the 
great  dome  of  the  sky  I  do  not  believe  there  are  any  sur- 
passing our  Presbyterian  mothers  in  the  faithful  training  of 
their  children  to  walk  in  the  right  ways  of  the  Lord,  nor  do 
I  believe  that  there  are  any  who  have  influences  transcend- 
ing those  of  Presbyterian  households  in  preparing  children 
to  become  good  citizens  both  of  the  country  and  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ. 

Under  such  parental  training  the  illustrious  men  were 
reared  whose  names  received  such  honorable  mention  by 
the  speaker  who  preceded  me ;  and,  I  may  add,  the  men  of 
generations  before  them,  who  stood  like  lights  and  land- 
marks on  the  shores  of  time ;  men  whose  achievements  re- 
mind us  of  the  illustrious  worthies  mentioned  in  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews,  every  verse  of  which  is  a 
hero's  monument. 


Closing  Years,  371 

He  closed  his  address  as  follows : 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  say  that  I  know  of  nothing 
more  astounding  than  the  statement  often  made  by  flippant 
writers  and  unscrupulous  speakers  that  Calvinism  is  losing 
its  hold  on  the  moral  convictions  of  mankind.  .  .  .  The 
allegation  appears  in  magazines,  in  popular  novels  and  in 
the  comic  journals  which  are  read  by  thousands.  The 
comic  journal  is  the  best  place  for  these  misrepresentations, 
for  none  of  the  jokes  or  pictures  contained  in  them  are 
half  so  comic  as  the  charge  that  Calvinism  is  well-nigh 
extinct.  It  would  be  laughable,  only  one  does  not  like  to 
laugh  at  what  you  call  in  Scotland — a  "lee."  The  calumny 
continues,  however,  to  be  repeated,  although  the  churches 
holding  the  Calvinistic  faith  constitute,  at  this  very  time, 
the  largest  body  of  orthodox  believers  in  the  world,  and 
although  Calvinism  is  steadily  gaining  adherents  in  de- 
nominations hitherto  of  Arminian  tendency. 

The  death  of  our  old  Calvinistic  mother  has  been  fre- 
quently announced,  and  her  funeral  oration  pronounced. 
Well,  the  death  of  a  mother  is  a  great  event  in  the  lives  of 
her  children.  A  minister  in  my  own  country  says,  "When 
we  came  to  lay  our  mother  in  the  grave,  one  of  us  said  to  a 
friend  at  his  side,  'We  will  remember  the  works  that  will 
follow  her.'  'What  works  ?'  asked  the  friend  to  whom  he 
spoke.  He  replied,  'She  bore  ten  sons  and  trained  them  all 
for  Christ.  We  are  all  standing  around  her  grave  to  bless 
God  that  she  ever  lived.'  " 

Mr.  President,  fathers  and  brethren,  we,  too,  bless  God 
for  our  dear  old  Presbyterian  mother,  who  has  borne  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  children  and  trained  them 
all  for  Christ ;  but  we  are  not  standing  around  her  grave ! 
We  rejoice  that  she  is  still  a  living  mother — her  eye  not 
dim,  nor  her  spiritual  force  abated,  and  when  our  de- 
scendants are  as  near  the  close  of  the  twentieth  century  as 
we  are  to  the  end  of  the  nineteenth,  another  council  will 
meet  to  celebrate  her  virtues  and  her  works  in  strains  of 
adoring  gratitude  compared  with  which  our  utterances  to- 
night are  cold  and  poor. 

Dr.  W.  W.  Moore,  who  was  present,  speaks  of  the  subject 
as  calling  forth  Dr.  Hoge's  best  gifts,  and  handled  "with  his 
customary  ease  and  vigor :" 


372  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

He  was  warmly  received  by  the  council  whenever  he 
appeared.  He  spoke  several  times,  once  in  presenting  a 
handsome  gavel  to  President  Roberts  at  the  close  of  the 
sessions,  and  once  at  Lord  Overtoun's  garden  party, 
where  he  told  the  story  of  the  American  who  said  his  coun- 
try was  "bounded  on  the  north  by  the  north  pole,  on  the 
east  by  sunrise,  on  the  west  by  sunset,  and  on  the  south  by 
the  equator,  and  as  much  further  as  you  want  to;"  and 
then  proceeded  felicitously  to  contrast  the  smallness  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  greatness  of  the  men  she  produced. 

Dr.  Hoge  preached  for  Dr.  Drummond  during  the  coun- 
cil, and  in  London  for  Dr.  Donald  McLeod,  at  St.  Colum- 
ba's  Church — the  church  attended  by  the  Duke  of  Argyle 
and  other  Scotch  noblemen  during  their  residence  in 
London. 

Socially  this  visit  to  Great  Britain  was  of  the  greatest  in- 
terest to  Dr.  Hoge.  He  was  always  more  interested  in 
people  than  in  things.  He  had  long  been  under  promise  to 
visit  Mr.  Bayard,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bayard  did  everything 
to  make  his  visit  delightful  and  memorable.     In  a  letter  to 

his  nephew  he  wrote : 

Richmond,  October  28,  1896. 

My  Dear  Peyton  :  I  was  very  glad  to  receive  your 
greeting  and  welcome  home. 

No  matter  how  pleasant  a  visit  abroad  may  have  been, 
the  return  always  brings  joy  and  thankfulness  with  it. 

My  last  was  my  ninth  visit  to  Europe,  and  although  I 
did  not  go  beyond  the  British  Isles,  it  was  the  flower  and 
crown  of  all  my  trips. 

The  outward  and  the  return  voyages  were  both  so  pleas- 
ant that  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  was  sorry  to  see  land, 
and  would  have  preferred  a  week  longer  on  water. 

During  my  stay  in  London,  for  ten  days  I  was  the  guest 
of  Mr.  Bayard.  Several  months  ago  he  wrote  asking  me  to 
make  him  a  visit  while  he  was  in  office,  and  my  appoint- 
ment as  a  delegate  to  the  Glasgow  Council  enabled  me  ta 
accept  his  invitation,  well  knowing  what  advantages  it 
would  give  me  in  the  way  of  introduction  to  a  sphere 
usually    unapproachable    to    visitors    from    this    country. 


Closing  Years.  373 

When  I  was  on  my  way  to  London,  I  determined  not  to 
ask  Mr.  Bayard  to  take  me  to  a  single  place  or  introduce 
me  to  a  single  person,  lest  in  some  way  it  might  embarrass 
him,  but  to  leave  all  that  to  the  friendship  he  had  shown  me 
for  so  many  years.  I  was  sure  his  purpose  was  to  make  my 
stay  with  him  memorable,  and  I  can  truly  say  he  surpassed 
all  my  expectations.  Every  day  he  devised  something  for 
my  entertainment  and  benefit. 

During  one  of  Mrs.  Bayard's  receptions,  I  had  my  first 
contact  with  the  people  with  whom  her  social  position  as 
wife  of  the  ambassador  places  her  on  an  equality.  She 
could  not  have  a  higher  position,  for  the  Queen  frequently 
invites  Mr.  Bayard  and  herself  to  dine  at  Windsor  Castle, 
not  to  meet  company,  but  because  she  likes  them  and  enjoys 
their  society.  One  day  they  took  me  to  visit  Lady  Burdett- 
Coutts  at  her  wonderful  home  on  Highgate  Hill — in  a  vast 
park,  full  of  trees,  in  the  seclusion  so  perfectly  secured  that 
not  a  glimpse  of  the  city  can  be  seen.  We  took  our  tea  in 
an  arbor  on  the  lawn.  She  was  one  of  the  most  interesting 
ladies  with  whom  I  met  in  England ;  very  old  now,  but  a 
society  woman  still,  with  all  her  faculties  brisk  and  bright, 
with  exquisite  courtesy  of  manners,  and  as  philanthropic 
as  ever. 

At  a  banquet  I  sat  by  Mr.  Bayard  with  the  Rt.  Hon.  Sir 
Richard  Webster,  Attorney-General  of  England,  on  one 
side,  and  the  Hon.  James  Bryce,  M.  P.,  the  distinguished 
historian,  on  the  other.  When  Sir  Richard  learned  that  I 
spent  a  week  with  Mr.  Benjamin  as  my  room-mate  during 
the  last  days  of  the  Confederacy,  he  invited  me  to  lunch 
with  him  at  the  House  of  Commons,  a  privilege  I  did  not 
enjoy  owing  to  some  misunderstanding  of  the  time.  When 
Mr.  Benjamin  made  his  escape  and  went  to  London,  Mr. 
Webster  became  quite  intimate  with  him,  and  wanted  to 
know  what  I  could  tell  him  of  his  old  friend,  and  I  will 
always  be  sorry  that  I  missed  the  interview. 

The  greatest  favor  Mr.  Bayard  did  me  was  to  take  me 
with  him  to  a  great  military  review  at  Aldershot,  given  in 
honor  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  of 
Boston.  The  English  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
to  pay  the  company  the  most  marked  attention,  no  doubt  to 
show  that,  should  there  ever  be  any  alienation  between  their 
country  and  ours,  it  would  not  be  provoked  by  them. 


374  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

It  was  an  occasion  when  many  of  the  great  commanders 
of  the  British  army  were  together.  I  might  have  gone  to 
London  a  hundred  times  without  having  such  an  opportu- 
nity. We  went  to  Aldershot  by  a  special  train  and  arrived 
early,  before  the  troops  began  to  move  and  before  the  cere- 
monies of  the  day  began,  so  that  the  commanders  had 
ample  time  to  receive  their  invited  guests. 

The  very  first  person  Mr.  Bayard  introduced  me  to  was 
the  Duke  of  Connaught,  Arthur,  the  third  son  of  the  Queen. 
He  began  a  conversation  with  me  at  once  in  the  most 
natural  and  pleasant  way  imaginable.  He  said,  "You  are 
the  guest  of  Mr.  Bayard,  and  we  hold  him  in  the  highest 
regard  in  England."  After  talking  awhile,  he  said,  "You 
have  had  a  dusty  ride  from  London ;  I  want  to  take  you 
and  Mr.  Bayard  to  another  building  on  the  grounds,  where 
you  can  be  refreshed  a  little."  We  went  a  hundred  yards 
or  so,  and  when  we  reached  the  place,  he  took  us  into  a 
room,  telling  us  we  could  find  water,  towels,  etc.,  and  that 
he  would  send  a  man  to  brush  our  clothes.  While  walking 
across  the  field  with  him,  he  behaved  precisely  as  any  Vir- 
ginia gentleman  would  have  done,  intent  on  kindly  hospi- 
tality. There  was  not  a  particle  of  assumption  or  reserve 
in  his  manner ;  and  here  I  may  say  I  fancy  that  one  reason 
men  of  high  rank  in  England  pay  respect  to  those  who 
come  from  the  South  is  that  zve  are  not  in  the  least  embar- 
rassed, and  have  nothing  fawning  or  obsequious  in  our 
manner  or  address,  trained  as  we  have  been  to  value  men 
according  to  their  intellectual  and  moral  worth,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  fine  couplet  of  Burns — 

"  The  rank  is  but  the  guinea  stamp, 
The  man  's  the  gowd  for  a'  that." 

No  one  would  have  quicker  contempt  for  a  toady  than  a 
nobleman,  and  no  one  would  more  readily  place  on  an 
equality  with  himself  a  gentleman,  who  with  all  his  respect 
and  deference  showed  that  he  had  respect  for  himself. 

My  next  introductions  were  to  Adjutant-General  Sir 
Redvers  Henry  Buller,  and  to  Quartermaster-General  Sir 
Evelyn  Wood  ;  but  what  interested  me  still  more  was  meet- 
ing with  Field-Marshal  General  Wolseley.  You  are  aware 
of  the  deep  interest  he  took  in  our  Confederate  struggle,, 
and  of  his  intense  admiration  of  Generals  Lee  and  Jackson. 


CUcL^^l^it 


(\    .     /  ^<\(f^yLU 


tvxZ^  iHut 


(R  ft 


/l/K^^ 


Closing  Years.  375 

He  commenced  the  conversation  by  speaking  of  these  illus- 
trious commanders  whom  he  declared  to  be  the  first  in 
military  genius  of  all  who  had  figured  in  the  war  between 
the  States.  He  sent  a  message  by  me  of  kind  regards  to 
Mrs.  Jackson,  which  I  have  taken  pleasure  in  delivering. 
What  gratified  me  especially  was  General  Wolseley's  invi- 
tation to  ride  back  with  him  from  Aldershot  to  London, 
which  gave  me  the  best  opportunity  I  could  have  had  for 
conversing  with  him. 

Another  of  the  officers  with  whom  I  became  acquainted 
was  Lieutenant-General  Havelock,  son  of  the  distinguished 
General  Havelock,  eminent  for  piety  as  for  courage.  I 
asked  him  if  it  was  true,  as  had  been  reported,  that  his 
father  had  declared  in  the  closing  hours  ui  his  life  that  "for 
forty  years  he  had  tried  so  to  live  as  to  meet  death  without 
dismay,"  and  he  assured  me  that  while  holding  his  father 
in  his  arms  he  had  uttered  these  memorable  words. ^ 

Some  one  sent  me  a  ticket  of  admission  to  the  Chapel 
Royal  of  St.  James  Palace  on  the  Sunday  when  the  son  of 
the  King  of  Denmark,  who  married  the  Queen's  grand- 
daughter, was  expected  with  his  bride  to  be  present  at  the 
services. 

As  I  approached  the  palace,  I  found  the  streets  in  the 
vicinity  filled  with  people  expecting  to  see  the  Prince  and 
Princess  pass  on  their  way  to  the  chapel.  In  common  with 
the  expectant  crowd,  I  was  disappointed,  for  I  found  that 
they  had  attended  the  early  morning  service  and  had  taken 
the  communion  ;  but  who  should  have  been  the  preacher  on 
the  occasion  but  the  Rev.  Harry  Jones,  with  whom  I 
travelled  in  Palestine !  When  the  service  was  over,  I  fol- 
lowed him  into  the  vestry-room,  where  he  was  disrobing. 
He  gave  me  a  joyous  greeting  and  begged  me  to  go  home 
with  him.     An  engagement  prevented  me  from  accepting 

'  A  little  incident  of  Mr.  Bayard's  thoughtful  consideration  occurred 
during  the  banquet  at  Aldershot.  Taking  the  blank  back  of  a  menu 
card,  he  got  a  number  of  the  most  distinguished  persons  present  to 
write  their  names  upon  it,  and  handed  it  to  Dr.  Hoge,  requesting  him 
to  take  it  to  Miss  Bessie  Hoge.  Dr.  Hoge  was  conversing  with  General 
Havelock  at  the  time,  and  his  signature  was  not  secured.  He  was 
ordered  to  India  immediately  after  the  review  at  Aldershot,  and  was 
killed  a  few  minutes  after  arriving  on  the  field  of  action.  Dr.  Hoge's 
name  was  written  afterwards  at  his  daughter's  request. 


376  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

his  invitation,  but  it  was  one  of  the  strange  coincidences,  so 
often  happening  to  me,  that  on  the  only  day  I  ever  entered 
that  chapel  I  should  have  met  my  old  friend  who  made  such 
kindly  mention  of  me  in  the  volume  he  published  about  his 
tour  in  Palestine. 

After  I  left  Mr.  Bayard's  hospitable  home,  I  wrote  him  a 
letter,  in  which  I  tried  to  express  my  sense  of  his  courtesy. 
The  letter  required  no  answer,  but  he  wrote  me  in  reply 
eight  pages  in  which  he  assured  me  of  his  gratification  of 
my  appreciation  of  what  he  had  done  for  me,  and  he  ended 
his  letter  by  saying  that  he  would  be  "more  content"  if  I 
would  always  make  his  house  my  home  when  I  visited  Lon- 
don, and  that  in  case  he  should  be  absent,  the  servants 
would  always  be  there  to  welcome  me.  The  force  of  hospi- 
tality could  no  farther  go.  In  no  other  instance  was  I  ever 
equally  assured  of  a  welcome  whether  my  host  was  at 
home  or  absent  from  it. 

Affectionately  yours,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

Another  of  Dr.  Hoge's  most  pleasant  visits  was  to  the 
Rt.  Hon.  Thomas  Sinclair,  P.  C,  at  Belfast,  in  response  to 
the  following  cordial  note : 

HoPEFiELD  House,  Belfast,  "2.2,  June,  1896. 

Dear  Dr.  Hoge  :  I  got  home  the  end  of  last  week,  and  I 
see  by  the  papers  you  are  in  full  vigor  at  the  council. 

I  now  write  to  remind  you  of  your  promise  to  visit  me 
here  before  your  return.  My  family  are  now  at  the  sea- 
side, but  w'e  shall  be  home  in  July  and  August,  and  any 
time  in  either  of  those  months  would  suit  us  for  your  visit. 
It  will  be  a  great  pleasure  for  us  to  see  you  here. 

You  will  find  our  weather  a  good  deal  cooler  than  it  was 
the  Sunday  we  met  at  Richmond. 

I  hope  you  have  enjoyed  the  meetings  of  the  council. 
They  seem  to  have  been  very  successful. 

Dr.  Hall  said  he  would  consult  with  you  about  helping 
him  out  with  a  preaching  engagement  in  Belfast.  I  am 
sure  you  will  get  splendid  audiences  here. 

With  kind  regards,  and  hoping  to  hear  when  you  can 
come,  I  am  ever. 

Very  truly,  Thomas  Sinclair. 


Closing  Years.  377 

There  was  no  city  where  Dr.  Hoge  was  greeted  with 
larger  congregations  than  Belfast,  or  where  the  papers,  espe- 
cially the  staunch  Belfast  Witness,  spoke  more  warmly  of 
his  preaching. 

This  visit  was  especially  delightful.  He  regarded  it  as  one 
of  the  blessings  of  his  life  to  have  "gained  the  friendship  of 
a  man  so  sincere,  so  spiritually  minded,  so  disinterested,  so 
.affectionate,"  as  Mr.  Sinclair.  While  with  Mr.  Sinclair  he 
attended  a  garden  party  at  the  magnificently  situated  castle 
of  the  Countess  of  Shaftesbury,  daughter-in-law  of  the  good 
old  Earl,  now  gone. 

When  Dr.  Hoge  met  with  the  accident  that  ended  his  life, 
one  of  the  most  cordial  letters  of  sympathy  he  received  was 
from  Mr.  Sinclair.  Another  was  from  Mrs.  Bayard,  writ- 
ten in  the  freshness  of  her  own  great  loss,  in  which  Dr. 
Hoge,  with  thousands  upon  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  most 
deeply  sympathized.  Just  before  returning  to  this  country, 
Mr.  Bayard  had  sent  Dr.  Hoge  this  graceful  New  Year's 
greeting : 

Embassy  of  the  United  States, 

LiONDOTS,  /amiary  i,  1S97. 

My  Dear  Dr.  Hoge:  The  New  Year  has  opened,  and 
the  procession  of  humanity  moves  on.  In  a  very  few  weeks 
I  embark  home,  and  I  hope  to  take  your  friendly  hand  in 
mine  during  the  year  1897. 

I  put  in  this  envelope  a  little  diary  for  your  vest  pocket, 
and  one  for  your  good  daughter. 

Mrs.  Bayard  and  I  join  in  affectionate  salutations. 

I  hope  that  my  day  of  the  calendar  will  be  in- 
scribed with  an  added  happiness,  and  I  am  sure  that  every 
day  you  will  add  to  the  happiness  of  some  other — or 
many  others. 

Believe  me,  dear  Doctor,  with  affection  and  respect, 

Sincerely  yours,  T.  F.  Bayard. 

During  this  visit,  Dr.  Hoge  was  constantly  pressed  to 
^write  his  reminiscences.  Mr.  Lawley  was  most  urgent.  Mr. 
Sinclair  wrote  him  just  after  he  left  his  house,  "You  must 


37^  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

perpetuate  your  reminiscences.     Engage  that  type-writer  at 
once  when  you  go  back." 

Mr.  William  Van  Vleck  Lidgerwood,  an  old  friend  of 
Governor  Randolph's,  with  whom  Dr.  Hoge  spent  several 
days  at  his  residence  opposite  the  Albert  Memorial,  in  Lon- 
don, wrote,  "Now,  dear  Doctor,  'would  you,  could  you,  will 
you'  write  your  reminiscences  ?  Please  enter  my  name  for 
ten  copies,  one  for  each  member  of  our  family."  Friends  at 
home  were  equally  solicitous,  and  a  publisher  stood  ready 
to  pay  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  the  manuscript;  but  it 
was  never  done;  it  was  not  even  begun.  Each  day  he  did. 
that  which  had  to  be  done  immediately,  and  to  accomplish 
that  he  had  to  borrow  time  from  rest.  He  was  always  in 
bondage  to  the  present. 

Doubtless  he  was  too  yielding  in  suffering  so  many  de- 
mands to  be  made  upon  his  time.  There  was  the  Assembly's 
Home  and  School,  for  example,  the  presidency  of  which  he 
accepted  after  his  fiftieth  anniversary;  a  noble  and  beautiful 
charity,  in  which  his  heart  was  profoundly  interested;  but 
it  absorbed  much  of  his  valuable  time,  and  when  trouble 
came  to  it,  he  threw  his  whole  soul  into  the  work  of  sav- 
ing it. 

International  arbitration  was  another  subject  to  which  he 
gave  increasing  attention.  He  was  in  constant  communica- 
tion with  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  who  depended  largely 
on  him  for  the  cultivation  of  sentiment  in  the  South,  and 
he  was  always  ready  to  labor  for  the  cause  with  tongue 
or  pen. 

In  October,  1896,  Princeton  University,  on  the  occasion 
of  its  sesqui-centennial,  formally  assumed  the  name  and  style 
of  a  university,  to  which  its  great  equipment  had  long  en- 
titled it.  The  occasion  was  made  memorable  by  the  con- 
ferring of  academic  honors  upon  men  of  this  and  other 
countries  representative  of  what  was  best  in  university,  re- 
ligious and  public  life.  Dr.  Hoge  was  one  of  those  who 
received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.     He  had  recently 


Closing  Years.  379- 

returned  from  the  council  in  Glasgow,  and  pressing  engage- 
ments prevented  his  attending  the  impressive  function  at 
which  the  degrees  were  conferred,  but  in  his  case,  as  in  a  few 
others,  the  degree  was  given  in  his  absence. 

The  last  General  Assembly  attended  by  Dr.  Hoge  was  in 
Charlotte,  N.  C,  in  1897.  He  was  a  commissioner  to  the 
Assembly,  and  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  celebration  of  the 
two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Westminster 
Confession.  For  this  address,  which  was  on  the  relation  of 
Presbyterianism  to  Missions,  he  made  his  usual  original  and 
elaborate  preparation,  writing  to  specialists  for  the  best 
books  upon  the  subjects,  and  gathering  from  every  source 
the  facts  upon  which  to  base  his  argument.^  His  work  in 
the  Assembly  was  most  laborious.  He  had  thrown  his  whole 
soul  into  the  work  of  the  Assembly's  Home  and  School,  and 
had  pledged  his  personal  credit  to  sustain  it  when  it  became 
involved  in  debt.  The  trustees  regarded  the  School  as  essen- 
tial to  the  Home.  They  held  that  it  must  be  a  high  grade 
institution  to  give  the  proper  educational  advantages  to  the 
children  of  our  missionaries  and  to  the  orphans  of  deceased 
ministers.  In  normal  times  the  School  had  been  a  source 
of  revenue,  helping  to  support  the  Home.  In  the  financial 
prostration  of  the  preceding  years  it  had  brought  the  trustees 
into  debt.  The  Assemblv's  Standing  Committee  maintained 
that  the  two  should  be  separated,  as  it  was  no  part  of  the 
Assembly's  business  to  support  a  local  educational  institu- 
tion. Dr.  Hoge  spent  laborious  nights  with  the  committee,, 
and  in  the  Assembly  plead  for  the  institution  with  all  the 
eloquence  and  pathos  of  a  father  pleading  for  his  child.  Had 
he  been  supported  by  any  one  equipped  with  the  facts  and 
figures  to  explain  the  financial  status  of  the  two  branches  of 
the  work,  his  efforts  might  have  been  successful.  As  it  was, 
the  i\ssembly  decreed  the  separation,  to  Dr.  Hoge's  intense 
mortification.     It  is  too  soon  to  pronounce  finally  upon  the 

'  The  address  is  published  in  Westtnz'nster  Addresses,  Presbyterian. 
Committee  of  Publication,  Richmond,  1897. 


380  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

wisdom  of  the  Assembly's  action.  The  board  was  able  to 
make  better  arrangements  than  could  have  been  anticipated 
for  the  education  of  the  children  committed  to  its  care,  but 
the  enterprise  has  languished,  the  number  of  children  cared 
for  reduced,  and  the  Training  School  for  Women  discon- 
tinued. The  Home  may  yet  have  a  useful  and  prosperous 
career,  but  the  dream  of  its  founders,  in  which  the  Home 
and  School  was  to  be  a  centre  of  missionary  influences;  to 
which  returned  missionaries  could  retire  and  be  usefully  em- 
ployed; where  the  children  of  missionaries  could  be  still 
kept  in  association  with  the  tongues  and  lands  in  which  they 
were  born,  while  receiving  the  best  educational  advantages 
of  the  home  land ;  where  young  women  could  receive  train- 
ing in  missionary  work  at  the  hands  of  those  who  had  toiled 
in  the  foreign  field,  and  where  the  orphan  children  of  min- 
isters might  be  brought  into  contact  with  all  these  influences ; 
this  dream  seems  now  impossible  of  realization. 

In  all  other  respects  this  Assembly  was  a  source  of  great 
happiness  to  Dr.  Hoge.  The  Westminster  celebration 
brought  together  many  of  the  fathers  of  the  church.  No- 
table among  them  was  Dr.  Dabney,  whose  eyes  had  lost  the 
light  of  this  world,  but  whose  intellect  was  as  vigorous  and 
whose  heart  was  as  warm  as  in  all  the  years  of  their  life-long 
friendship.  In  less  than  a  year  Dr.  Hoge  stood  beside  his 
open  grave,  and  said,  with  intense  emotion,  "It  seems  in- 
credible that  all  the  life  and  power  of  that  man  have  gone 
out  of  the  world." 

In  all  his  addresses  at  the  Assembly,  Dr.  Hoge  was  lis- 
tened to  with  that  fascinated  attention  which  is  given  to 
those  whom  we  fear  we  may  not  hear  again.  To  some  his 
eloquence  was  a  memory  of  childhood  or  youth;  to  others 
it  was  a  tradition  received  from  fathers  or  mothers  who  had 
heard  him  in  their  youth;  to  others  it  was  only  known  by 
reputation.  He  was  now  standing  close  to  the  Psalmist's 
utmost  limit,  but  the  golden  bowl  was  not  broken  nor  the 
silver  cord  loosed.    At  the  unveiling  of  the  window  in  mem- 


Closing  Years.  381 

ory  of  the  gifted  and  lieloved  Preston,  the  late  pastor  of  the 
church ;  in  his  speeches  on  the  Home  and  School ;  in  his 
Westminster  address,  and  in  a  great  sermon  at  the  Second 
Church,  where  he  held  a  vast  congregation  spell-bound  for 
over  an  hour,  he  spoke  with  a  pathos  and  power  hardly  ex- 
celled in  his  palmiest  days. 

In  the  social  circle  he  shone,  as  he  always  did.  His  home 
was  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chambers.  Mrs.  Chambers  was  a. 
granddaughter  of  his  uncle,  Drury  Lacy,  and  her  mother, 
Mrs.  Dewey,  lived  with  her,  carrying  him  back  to  his  early 
associations.  Mrs.  Dewey's  brother,  Dr.  W.  S.  Lacy,  was 
with  them  a  part  of  the  time,  as  was  his  nephew  from  Wil- 
mington. Dr.  S.  S.  Laws  ^  and  Mrs.  Laws,  old  friends  of 
Dr.  Hoge's,  were  also  guests  in  the  house.  When  the  late  re- 
turn was  made  from  Assembly  or  committee  and  Mrs.  Cham- 
bers brought  out  some  refreshment,  Dr.  Hoge  would  lead  the 
conversation  into  such  happy  and  inviting  fields  that  we 
would  forget  that  a  morrow  must  come,  with  its  exacting 
round  of  duties,  and  would  linger  in  the  delightful  circle  far 
into  the  night.  They  were  happy  days,  on  which  some  of 
us,  looking  back,  can  only  say,  Et  ego  in  Arcadia. 

The  Southern  celebration  of  the  Westminster  anniversary 
attracted  much  attention  throughout  the  Presbyterian 
brotherhood.    A  minister  in  the  North  wrote  Dr.  Hoge : 

Your  address  gave  me  an  additional  pleasure,  by  re- 
calling a  day  with  Dean  Stanley  in  the  immortal  abbey.  I 
have  his  autograph  written  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber  on 
the  Revision  Committee's  table,  which  he  assured  me 
"looked  as  the  Assembly's  sessions  might  have  left  it."  He- 
was  the  most  sympathetic  eulogist  of  the  Assembly  I  met  in 
all  England. 

The  memorial  is  a  splendid  exhibit  of  scholarship,  elo- 
quence, literary  finish  and  religious  force.  You  have  set 
our  part  of  the  church  an  example  hard  to  match. 

'  When  Dr.  Hoge  was  in  Fulton,  Mo.,  to  dedicate  the  church  of  his 
nephew.  Dr.  Marquess,  Dr.  Laws,  who  was  then  president  of  the  State 
University,  drove  over  from  Columbia  and  took  Dr.  Hoge  back  with 
him  to  address  the  students. 


382  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

The  following  winter,  Dr.  Hoge's  long-cherished  desire 
for  an  assistant  or  associate  in  his  pastoral  charge  was  real- 
ized in  the  most  unexpected  way.  The  Rev.  Donald  Guthrie, 
a  young  Canadian  minister,  passing  through  Richmond  in 
search  of  a  Southern  climate  for  his  wife,  brought  letters  of 
introduction  to  Dr.  Hoge;  among  others,  one  from  his 
uncle,  the  Rev.  Principal  MacVicar,  of  Montreal.  Dr.  Hoge 
invited  him  to  preach  for  him,  with  the  result  described  in 
his  reply  to  Dr.  MacVicar's  letter : 

Richmond,  y^wz/arj/ 20,  1898. 

My  Dear  Dr.  MacVicar  :  I  was  greatly  obliged  to  you 
for  your  letter  regarding  Mr.  Guthrie.  He  has  been  with 
us  two  weeks  and  has  preached  twice  for  me  on  the  Sab- 
bath and  lectured  on  Wednesday  night,  making  a  very  fa- 
vorable impression  on  our  people  each  time.  I  have  seen  a 
good  deal  of  him  socially  and  like  him  more  and  more. 

For  more  than  a  year  I  have  been  looking  for  some 
young  man  of  good  scholarship,  good  address,  and  en- 
dowed with  what,  for  want  of  a  better  phrase,  we  call  the 
magnetic  gift.  If,  in  addition  to  these  qualities,  I  can  find 
a  man  of  earnest  piety  and  consecrated  life,  he  will  be  the 
treasure  I  have  sought.  It  may  be  that  I  have  already 
found  him  in  Mr.  Guthrie.  I  have  proposed  to  him  to  be- 
come my  assistant  for  three  months,  with  the  privilege  of 
withdrawing  from  the  position  at  the  end  of  either  month, 
if  he  wishes  to  do  so,  and  he  has  accepted  the  position. 

In  this  way  our  people  will  have  the  opportunity  of  be- 
coming acquainted  with  him  as  a  minister  and  as  a  man, 
and  by  the  expiration  of  the  time  of  this  engagement  he  can 
judge  whether  he  would  probably  be  happy  and  useful 
among  our  people. 

If  both  parties  should  be  pleased,  I  know  of  nothing  to 
prevent  the  engagement  from  being  a  permanent  one,  and 
thus  a  desire  I  have  long  felt  will  be  satisfied.  Virginia 
being  my  native  State  and  Richmond  my  home  for  more 
than  fifty  years,  I  have  unwillingly  become  associated  with 
so  many  enterprises,  and  am  constrained  to  take  part  in  so 
many  public  affairs,  that  as  the  years  wear  on,  instead  of 
finding  repose  with  advancing  time,  my  work  becomes 
more  arduous  and  exacting.    I  have  been  urged  to  write  a 


Closing  Years.  383 

volume  of  reminiscences  of  men  and  events  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  two  or  three  other  books,  of  one  kind  and  an- 
other, but  I  can  never  accomplish  these  tasks  until  my 
labors  are  lightened,  and  in  fact  I  could  not  have  stood  the 
strain  to  which  I  have  been  subjected  but  for  the  superb 
health  with  which  I  have  been  blessed.  Now,  if  a  good 
providence  has  sent  Mr.  Guthrie  to  my  relief,  I  will  be  very 
grateful.  At  all  events,  I  hope  to  have  the  refreshment  of 
his  help  for  three  months. 

You  have  recalled  to  mind  our  pleasant  meeting  at  the 
council  in  Glasgow,  and  the  debate  which  followed  your 
able  address  on  "The  Relations  Between  Theology  and 
Philosophy."  One  sentence  I  particularly  remember,  when 
you  said  evolution  could  not  account  for  the  Nativity,  the 
Resurrection,  the  Ascension,  and  the  marvels  of  Pentecost. 

With  great  respect  and  regard,  I  remain. 

Yours  most  sincerely,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

So  pleased  were  pastor  and  people  v^ith  Mr.  Guthrie's  min- 
istrations that  on  May  8th  a  congregational  meeting  was 
held,  at  which  he  was  unanimously  called  to  be  co-pastor 
with  Dr.  Hoge. 

This  consummation,  so  devoutly  wished  by  Dr.  Hoge, 
while  bringing  him  the  needed  relief,  brought  a  new  test  to 
his  character.  The  relation  is  a  notoriously  trying  one. 
The  more  successful  the  experiment  in  one  point  of  view,  the 
severer  the  test;  for  old  age  is  proverbially  suspicious  of 
being  supplanted.  A  dying  king  rouses  from  the  stupor  of 
death  to  rebuke  the  heir-apparent  for  trying  on  the  crown ; 
but  such  an  indiscretion  is  not  needed  to  evoke  the  com- 
plaints of  the  querulous,  or  to  awaken  the  jealousy  of  the 
suspicious. 

The  happy  relations  that  were  maintained  bet\veen  Dr. 
Hoge  and  Mr.  Guthrie  were  in  great  part  due  to  Mr. 
Guthrie's  own  modesty,  tact  and  good  sense;  in  great  part 
also  to  the  unswerving  devotion  of  the  congregation  and 
people  of  Richmond  to  Dr.  Hoge,  and  their  continued  and 
imbounded  delight  in  his  ministrations. 

But  of  Dr.  Hoge's  own  part  in  the  formation  and  main- 


584  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

tenance  of  these  relations,  Mr.  Guthrie  can  speak  best.  In- 
his  sermon  after  Dr.  Hoge's  death,  he  said — what  he  had 
already  said  at  the  ministers'  association : 

These  relations  were  marked  by  absolute  harmony.  I 
cannot  recall  one  difference  of  opinion  upon  the  smallest 
detail  of  church  work.  Youth  and  age,  inexperience  and 
experience,  sometimes  find  it  hard  to  see  eye  to  eye.  Youth 
is  inclined  to  be  superficial  and  rash ;  and  inexperience 
leads  to  many  errors  of  judgment,  and  to  utterances  which, 
when  not  positively  injurious,  are  often  ludicrous.  Some- 
times age  is  intolerant,  and  experience  speaks  in  harsh 
tones.  Your  pastor  in  the  fulness  of  the  accumulated  ex- 
perience of  many  years  was  neither  harsh  nor  intolerant, 
but  kindly  and  considerate.  He  neither  commanded  nor 
dictated ;  but  sought  to  lead  me.  It  may  sound  strange  to 
you  to  hear  me  say  that  never,  in  the  whole  course  of  our 
relations,  did  he  ever  tender  me  advice  wiasked.  I  sought 
his  advice  upon  many  matters,  and  upon  such  occasions  it 
was  given,  cheerfully,  sympathetically,  fully  and  wisely. 
His  attitude  was  not  one  of  coldness  or  indifference,  but 
one  of  gentle  considerateness.  Is  not  this  the  method  of 
God  himself  towards  his  children,  whereby  he  seeks  to  de- 
velop them?  Like  a  mother  teaching  her  child  to  walk — 
ready  to  help  it  to  its  feet  should  it  stumble,  ready  to  guide 
its  footsteps  when,  in  its  uncertain  efforts,  it  totters  near 
dangerous  places,  always  behind  it  with  strong  arms  out- 
stretched ;  such  was  your  pastor's  attitude  to  me  in  my 
work  in  this  congregation. 

Nor  can  I  refrain  from  mentioning  this  fact,  viz.,  he 
sought  to  improve  my  work  by  constant  encouragement 
rather  than  by  severe  criticism.  I  have  spoken  personally 
with  him  about  my  labors,  and  he  has  spoken  to  others  on 
the  same  topic,  but  never  have  I  heard  personally  or 
through  others,  one  word  of  discouraging  criticism  coming 
from  his  lips.  I  am  humbly  conscious  that  his  trained  eye 
saw  many  crudities  and  imperfections  in  my  service ;  but, 
noting  them,  he  saw  fit  in  his  kindness  to  withhold  mention 
of  them.  It  was  my  custom  on  Sunday  afternoons  to  call, 
before  coming  to  the  pulpit,  at  his  house  where  he  joined 
me ;  and  together  we  came  to  God's  house.  Many  times  I 
went  into  his  parlor  to  wait  for  him,  with  an  oppressive 


Closing  Years.  385 

consciousness  that  my  sermon  was  far  short  of  what  it 
ought  to  and  might  have  been ;  and  at  such  times  I  was 
nervous  and  fearful  at  the  thought  of  having  to  deliver  it 
before  him  ;  but  he  always  had  a  stimulating  word  for  me : 
that  we  could  never  tell  before  delivering  it,  how  a  sermon 
would  prove ;  that  he  had  been  remembering  me  in  prayer 
at  the  throne  of  grace ;  that  he  trusted  that  the  Lord  would 
grant  me  special  "liberty"  in  the  delivery  of  my  message. 
When  I  succeeded,  he  rejoiced  in  my  success ;  when  I 
failed,  he  had  no  word  of  censure  for  my  failure. 

It  is  remarkable  how^  closely  this  testimony  conforms  to 
that  which  Dr.  Hoge  often  gave  of  Dr.  Plumer's  relations  to 
himself;  and  v^hat  Mr.  Guthrie  testifies  otliers  can  confirm. 
In  his  own  family,  in  his  going  in  and  out  among  his  people, 
and  in  his  intercourse  with  the  outside  world,  Dr.  Hoge 
never  lost  an  opportunity  of  speaking  a  kind  word  of  his 
young  associate,  and  never  uttered  a  word  of  unkindness, 
or  damned  with  faint  praise. 

The  relief  came  just  in  time;  too  late,  indeed,  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  Dr.  Hoge's  purpose  of  authorship;  but 
just  in  time  to  lift  the  burden  from  his  shoulders  before  he 
fell  beneath  it.  In  May  he  preached  several  times  to  the 
Virginia  troops  at  "Camp  Lee" — strangely  renewing  at  the 
last  the  experiences  of  nearly  forty  years  before.  In  June 
he  went  as  usual  to  the  commencement  at  Hampden-Sidney, 
as  referred  to  earlier  in  this  history.^  But  a  slow  fever  set 
in  from  a  complication  of  maladies;  or,  as  many  feared, 
from  a  giving  way  of  the  vital  forces.  Early  in  July  he 
went  to  the  White  Sulphur  Springs,  where  he  was  attended 
by  his  devoted  friend.  Dr.  Hunter  McGuire,  by  his  son.  Dr. 
Stuart  McGuire,  and  by  his  own  son,  Dr.  Moses  D.  Hoge, 
Jr.  He  was  tenderly  nursed  by  his  two  daughters,  and  by 
his  nephew.  Professor  Addison  Hogue.^   His  sufferings  were 

'  Page  39. 

^  During  one  of  Dr.  Hoge's  trips  to  the  old  world  he  was  so  annoyed 
by  the  constant  mispronunciation  of  his  name  that  he  suggested  a  family 
convention  for  changing  the  spelling.  Professor  Addison  Hoge  had  been 
so  much  vexed  from  the  same  cause  that  he  adopted  the  spelling  Hogue. 


386  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

at  times  intense,  his  weakness  and  emaciation  extreme,  but 
so  great  was  his  force  of  will  that  he  would  shave  and  dress 
himself  almost  every  day.  Some  nights  the  spark  would 
almost  go  out,  but  in  the  morning  it  would  flame  up  again. 
The  fever  at  last  burned  itself  out,  and  with  his  wonderful 
power  of  recuperation  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  be  brought 
to  Richmond  early  in  August.  On  the  24th  of  that  month 
he  went  with  his  son,  Hampden  Hoge,  to  Atlantic  City, 
where,  in  spacious  rooms  facing  the  ocean,  he  drank  in  new 
health  and  vigor  from  the  salt  breeze.  Hopes  began  to  be 
entertained  of  his  recovery,  and  he  himself  fixed  the  end  of 
September  for  his  return  home;  but  he  was  far  from  well. 
To  his  nephew,  who  had  missed  him  at  Atlantic  City,  he 
wrote  from  the  home  of  Mr.  Wallace  King,  near  Baltimore : 

Elderslie,  September  15,  1898. 
My  Dear  Peyton  :  I  am  truly  sorry  that  you  had  your 
trip  to  Atlantic  City  without  finding  what  you  went  for. 
Knowing  that  you  were  to  preach  in  New  York  last  Sun- 
day, I  would  have  written  and  informed  you  of  my  move- 
ments if  I  had  only  known  to  whose  care  to  direct  my  letter. 
Had  you  been  aware  of  my  locality  you  could  have  come  to 
Baltimore  instead  of  Atlantic  City,  and  by  the  electric  cars 
reached  me  here  in  twenty  minutes  and  spent  the  night 
under  the  roof  of  people  who  would  have  given  you  a  glad 
welcome.  ...  I  am  sorry  to  tell  you  my  improvement  in 
health  is  far  from  being  what  I  anticipated.  I  have  had 
every  advantage,  but  am  still  weak  and  tremulous.  You 
can  see  it  in  my  penmanship ;  but  I  am  as  strong  as  ever  in 
the  bonds  that  make  me 

Your  affectionate  uncle,  Moses  D.  Hoge. 

In  spite,  however,  of  his  feeble  physical  condition.  Dr. 
Hoge  persisted  in  going  to  Elkins,  W.  Va.,  to  fulfil  an  en- 
gagement to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  of  Mr.  Arthur 
Lee,  of  Richmond,  to  Miss  Grace  Davis,  the  daughter  of 
ex-Senator  Davis,  of  West  Virginia.  The  journey  was 
comfortably  made  in  a  private  car,  and  the  ceremony  duly 
performed  in  the  beautiful  Davis  Memorial  Church,  which 


Closing  Years.  ^     387 

Dr.  Hoge  had  dedicated  several  years  before.  In  the  palatial 
home  of  Mr.  Davis,  among  the  beautiful  West  Virginia 
mountains,  and  with  the  solicitous  attention  of  the  family 
and  their  many  distinguished  guests,  Dr.  Hoge  made  marked 
improvement,  and,  true  to  his  purpose,  returned  to  Rich- 
mond in  time  to  preach  on  the  first  Sunday  in  October. 

It  was  an  occasion  of  intensest  interest.  A  great  congre- 
gation had  assembled  to  hear  the  voice  they  had  never 
expected  to  hear  from  the  pulpit  again.  He  entered  as  one 
risen  from  the  dead.  His  step  was  trembling  and  slow. 
There  was  a  manifest  effort  at  self-control  in  his  voice  and 
movements,  as  he  began  the  opening  services ;  but  before  he 
reached  the  sermon,  he  seemed  to  be  himself  again.  He 
became  "erect  and  animated,  and  spoke  with  all  his  distinct- 
ness and  beauty  of  diction."  The  sermon  was  on  "The 
Causes  and  Cure  of  Despondency,"  from  Psalm  xlii.  11, 
"Why  art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul,  and  why  art  thou  dis- 
quieted within  me  ?  Hope  thou  in  God,  for  I  shall  yet  praise 
him,  who  is  the  health  of  my  countenance  and  my  God."  An 
impressive  part  of  the  sermon  referred  to  the  sorrow  occa- 
sioned by  the  death  of  men  eminently  endowed  with  gifts 
which  qualified  them  for  useful  service.     He  said : 

In  this  sorrow  I  share  to-day,  when  I  remember  the  pri- 
vation we  have  suffered  in  the  loss  of  my  honored  brother, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Barnett,  of  Atlanta,  whose  church  it  was  my 
privilege  to  dedicate,  and  whose  career  as  pastor  and  pres- 
byter, and  whose  unswerving  devotion  to  all  the  duties  of 
his  holy  calling  won  for  him  an  ever-deepening  respect  and 
affection  on  the  part  of  those  who  knew  him  best  as  the 
years  have  gone  by. 

And  what  a  blank,  greatly  to  be  deplored,  has  been  made 
in  the  roll  of  the  faithful  preachers  of  the  word,  whose  duty 
and  delight  it  is  to  bear  up  the  banner  of  the  pure  gospel  in 
the  eyes  of  the  unnumbered  multitude  by  the  removal  of 
Dr.  John  Hall  from  the  wide  field  of  his  earthly  labors ! 

And  what  shall  I  say  of  the  sorrow  of  all  who  revere  the 
patriot  sage,  and  the  incorruptible  statesman,  in  contem- 


388  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

plating  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  a  man 
who  gave  new  dignity  to  the  highest  positions  of  trust 
which  his  country  could  bestow  upon  him?  Descended 
from  a  noble  ancestry,  he  not  only  maintained  the  family 
honor,  but  added  new  lustre  to  it.  Like  his  great  progeni- 
tor,^ he  was  without  fear  and  without  reproach.  No  re- 
flection could  be  made  on  his  integrity,  and  never  by  the 
sacrifice  of  principle  did  he  seek  emolument  or  ofifice.  For 
more  than  thirty  years  I  was  honored  by  his  friendship 
and  by  many  tokens  of  his  regard. 

In  conclusion,  Dr.  Hoge  said : 

It  is  not  my  habit  to  introduce  personal  matters  into  my 
sermons,  but  after  so  many  weeks  of  enforced  silence, 
through  so  severe  and  serious  an  illness,  I  cannot  re- 
strain the  wish  to  express  my  gratitude  to  God  for  per- 
mitting me  to  stand  again  in  this  pulpit  and  speak  once 
more  to  the  people  of  my  first  and  only  love  as  a  pastor ! 
For  what  I  have  recendy  suffered  I  have  had  so  many  com- 
pensations that  I  would  be  ungrateful  indeed  if  I  did  not 
express  my  thankfulness  for  numberless  telegrams  and 
letters  during  my  absence,  assuring  me  of  the  sympathy 
and  affection  of  those  to  whom  I  have  so  long  ministered ; 
grateful  that  I  have  been  the  subject  of  so  many  prayers, 
at  family  altars,  and  in  the  congregations  of  my  brethren, 
who  remembered  me  in  leading  the  devotions  of  their  peo- 
ple. Some  pastor  must  be  the  happiest  pastor  in  the  world, 
and  sometimes  I  think  I  may  be  the  one,  I  can  say  what, 
perhaps,  few  can  say,  that  I  am  satisfied  with  my  lot.  For 
more  than  fifty  years  there  has  been  no  church  in  the  world 
that  I  would  be  willing  to  take  in  exchange  for  this. 

During  my  recent  separation  from  you,  I  have  been  free 
from  all  anxiety  on  your  behalf,  because  of  my  entire  con- 
fidence in  the  discretion,  the  wisdom  and  the  fidelity  of  my 
dear  friend  and  colleague,  Donald  Guthrie.  God  has 
blessed  his  labors  of  love  to  some  who  united  by  public  pro- 
fession with  this  church  at  your  last  communion. 

How  it  would  rejoice  my  heart  if  this,  my  first  sermon 
on  my  return,  should  be  the  means  of  leading  some  soul  to 

'  Dr.  Hoge  does  not  use  this  word  in  the  strictest  sense>  as  the  Che- 
valier Bayard  died  unmarried. 


Closing  Years.  389 

Christ,  or  of  strengthening-  and  comforting  one  of  God's 
dear  children.  I  have  nothing  more  to  wish  for  as  a  pastor, 
except  the  abundant  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  all  grace, 
and  the  happy  conversion  of  some  in  whom  I  feel  a  deep 
interest,  and  who  will,  as  I  trust,  soon  be  able  to  say,  "I 
hope  in  God,  and  I  will  yet  praise  him  who  is  the  health  of 
my  countenance  and  my  God." 

The  sermon  \vas  printed,  and,  coming  as  it  did  out  of  the 
heart  of  the  experiences  of  a  sick  chamber,  it  reached  the 
hearts  of  many  denied  the  enjoyment  of  the  services  of  God's 
house. 

That  week  the  buildings  of  Union  Seminary  were  to  be 
dedicated  at  its  beautiful  new  home  in  the  suburbs  of  Rich- 
mond. He  was  personally  deeply  interested  in  the  removal, 
but,  on  account  of  his  official  relations  to  Hampden-Sidney 
College,  had  taken  no  public  part  in  the  movement.  On 
Wednesday  he  was  still  too  fatigued  from  the  effort  of  Sun- 
day to  attend  the  dedication  services,  but  Thursday  morning 
he  came  out  to  hear  the  opening  address  of  Professor  John- 
son. By  a  spontaneous  impulse,  the  whole  audience  rose  as 
he  entered.  That  afternoon  he  drove  out  again  to  witness 
the  raising  of  the  Covenanters'  flag,  and  to  make  the  prayer 
at  the  ceremonies  in  connection  with  it. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  James  P.  Smith,  now  editor  of  the  Central 
Presbyterian,  a  brother  of  his  dear  friend  Mrs.  Brown,  who 
had  married  the  daughter  of  his  first  cousin,  Major  J. 
Horace  Lacy,  had  built  a  beautiful  home  near  the  seminary, 
which  was  completed  shortly  before  the  seminary  was 
opened.  From  his  sick  chamber,  Dr.  Hoge  had  written  him 
that  when  he  returned  to  Richmond  he  wished  to  dedicate 
his  home.  So  one  bright  October  evening  he  drove  out  and 
took  dinner  w'ith  the  family,  and  in  a  service  of  great  beauty 
dedicated  the  home  to  God,  and  sought  his  blessing  on  all 
its  inmates  for  all  time.  Why  should  not  this  beautiful 
thought  become  a  custom  ? 

Dr.  Hoge  preached  every  Sunday  morning  in  October  in 


390  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

his  own  church,  and  several  Sunday  evenings  in  other 
churches.  During  that  month  he  took  the  Wednesday  even- 
ing service,  lecturing  three  successive  Wednesdays  on  the 
Visions  of  Zechariah.  His  morning  texts,  after  the  first 
Sunday,  were : 

October  gth. — Psalm  xvi.  ii,  "In  thy  presence  is  fulness 
of  joy;  at  thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  forevermore." 

October  i6th. — Hebrews  v.  i,  2,  "For  every  high  priest 
taken  from  among  men  is  ordained  for  men  in  things  per- 
taining to  God,  that  he  may  offer  both  gifts  and  sacrifices 
for  sins :  who  can  have  compassion  on  the  ignorant  and  on 
them  that  are  out  of  the  way." 

October  23^. — John  x.  17,  18,  "I  lay  down  my  life,  that  I 
might  take  it  again.  No  man  taketh  it  from  me,  but  I  lay 
it  down  of  myself.  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have 
power  to  take  it  again.  This  commandment  have  I  received 
of  my  Father." 

October  2,0th. — John  xvi.  6,  7,  "But  because  I  have  said 
these  things  unto  you,  sorrow  hath  filled  your  heart.  Never- 
theless I  tell  you  the  truth ;  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I 
go  away :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come 
unto  you;   but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him  unto  you." 

The  sermon  on  these  strangely  prophetic  words — the  last 
that  he  was  to  preach  from  that  sacred  pulpit — was  pro- 
nounced at  the  time  a  sermon  of  wonderful  pathos  and 
power. 

He  had  also  conducted  several  funerals,  and  had  taken 
part  in  various  public  meetings.  With  Mr.  Guthrie  he  had 
planned  for  an  active  winter's  work.  His  health  had  be- 
come, not  strong,  but  much  firmer.  He  remarked  to  his 
daughter  that  he  had  never  taken  a  fresher  interest  in  the 
beauties  of  nature  or  the  delights  of  literature. 

On  Friday,  November  4th,  as  he  was  returning  home  from 
a  visit  of  consolation  to  a  bereaved  family  in  his  congrega- 
tion, he  was  driving  along  in  a  quiet  reverie  of  thankful 
emotions  that  at  last  he  had  taken  up  every  part  of  his  work 


I 


Closing  Years.  391 

again,  when  suddenly  lie  heard  the  clang  of  a  gong  in  his 
ears,  felt  the  crash  of  a  car  against  his  buggy,  and  found 
himself  hurled  through  the  air.  He  landed  on  his  right  side 
on  the  hard  paving  stones,  sustaining  severe  injuries,  ex- 
ternal and  internal.  He  was  tenderly  borne  to  his  home, 
bruised  and  bleeding  from  head  to  foot.  As  the  external 
injuries  began  to  heal,  hopes  were  entertained  of  his  recov- 
ery. The  day  set  for  Mr.  Guthrie's  installation  was  post- 
poned from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  at  his  wish,  in  the  hope  that 
he  might  be  present ;  but  graver  symptoms  began  to  appear, 
indicating  lesion  of  the  ligaments  of  the  heart.  Everything 
was  done  to  cheer  and  brighten  his  chamber.  The  flowers 
that  were  daily  showered  upon  him,  after  a  few  hours  were 
replaced  by  others,  and  went  forth  to  brighten  other  cham- 
bers of  sickness.  Letters,  notes,  telegrams  from  all  parts  of 
our  own  and  other  lands  surrounded  him  with  an  atmos- 
phere of  love  and  sympathy.  Now  and  then  some  favored 
one  was  received  into  his  room,  or  some  pastor  offered 
prayer  at  his  side. 

Before  his  accident  there  had  been  a  plan  under  discussion 
among  some  of  his  Masonic  friends  to  make  him  a  Mason 
without  the  usual  steps  and  formalities.  He  had  never  as- 
sociated himself  either  with  the  Masonic  order  or  any  other 
secret  society,  believing  that  the  ministry  served  the  church 
best  by  making  it  the  one  brotherhood  or  association  to 
which  all  their  energies  were  devoted;  but  this  came  to  him, 
not  as  a  new  demand  upon  his  time,  but  as  an  unsought 
honor,  and  he  accepted  it  as  a  token  of  the  regard  of  a  great 
fraternity.  After  his  accident,  it  was  arranged  that  the 
initiation  should  take  place  quietly  in  his  room,  and  with  a 
brief  ceremony  he  was  "made  a  Mason  at  sight,"  as  the  city 
papers  expressed  it.  He  was  immediately  elected  chaplain, 
and  closed  the  ceremony  with  a  beautiful  and  touching 
prayer. 

When  the  regular  communion  service  of  the  church  was 
at  hand,  he  dictated  this  letter  to  his  congregation.     It  was 


392  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

his  last  word  to  the  people  he  had  served  so  long  and  loved 
so  well : 

My  Beloved  Friends,  Members  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church: 

For  the  first  time  in  fifty-three  years  I  am  separated  from 
you  during  communion  season,  while  I  am  in  the  city  dur- 
ing its  commemoration.  I  have  been  separated  from  you 
on  other  occasions,  sometimes  by  intervening  seas  and  con- 
tinents, but  to-day,  although  my  chamber  almost  touches 
the  place  in  which  you  are  gathered,  the  very  nearness 
makes  me  feel  the  privation  to  be  all  the  greater.  Perhaps 
no  church  has  had  such  a  record  of  happy  communions  ex- 
tending over  half  a  century;  the  attendance  has  always 
been  large,  the  interest  of  the  people  in  the  service  intense, 
and  almost  uniformly  additions  have  been  made  to  the 
membership  from  your  own  families  or  from  those  of  your 
friends ;  but  whoever  else  may  be  absent,  the  great  Shep- 
herd and  Bishop  of  souls  will  be  with  you.  Nothing  can 
separate  you  from  His  presence  and  His  love,  and  while  you 
are  partaking  of  His  consecrated  emblems,  my  prayer  shall 
be  that  Christ  may  be  precious  to  every  trusting  heart,  and 
the  season  be  made  memorable  by  foretastes  of  heavenly 
rest  and  peace. 

The  writer  saw  him  once,  early  in  December,  when  his 
case  had  entered  its  most  serious  stage.  His  mind  was  then 
perfectly  clear.  He  was  full  of  all  affectionate  interest,  and 
said  things  to  be  remembered  always ;  but  not  to  be  recorded 
here.  Led  to  speak  of  him.self  he  described  his  symptoms 
with  perfect  accuracy,  and  understood  their  meaning,  al- 
though his  physicians  had  not  told  him  of  these  things.  He 
spoke  of  the  mystery  of  the  providence  that  restored  him  in 
answer  to  so  many  prayers  only  to  lay  him  aside  again.  He 
could  not  understand  it,  but  he  was  submissive  beneath  the 
rod.  He  was  content  to  be  made  perfect  in  the  school  of 
physical  suffering,  and  took  delight  in  the  promises  of  God 
and  the  consolations  of  his  word.  The  seventy-first  Psalm, 
especially,  he  said,  was  his  Psalm. 

But  darker  days  were  to  come.    The  delicate  fibres  of  the 


Closing  Years,  393 

brain  had  received  a  shock  the  full  effect  of  which  became 
more  manifest  as  the  brain  became  less  nourished.  Clouds 
settled  down  upon  his  mind,  and  his  mental  sufferings  were 
great.  All  through  these  weary  weeks  his  devoted  friend, 
Dr.  McGuire,  spent  an  hour  with  him  in  the  heart  of  every- 
day. As  a  physician,  there  was  little  that  he  could  do ;  but 
as  a  friend  he  strove  to  cheer  him  and  to  turn  his  mind  into 
channels  of  pleasant  association.  And  it  was  not  all  dark- 
ness. While  the  princely  mind  was  overthrown,  there  would 
be  intervals,  not,  indeed,  of  restored  reason,  but  of  light  and 
sweetness  and  love.  For  the  last  three  weeks  of  his  life  his 
oldest  daughter  was  ill  with  pneumonia,  and  Mrs.  Gilliam 
was  the  only  woman  at  his  side,  his  faithful,  tender,  tire- 
less nurse.  She  resembled  her  mother,  and  to  his  mind 
the  3^ears  were  turned  backward  to  the  days  of  his  early 
married  life.  He  called  her  "Mamma,"  and  would  ask 
her,  as  evening  came  on,  "Are  all  the  children  in?" — with 
many  other  words  of  endearment  and  solicitude.  Some- 
times he  would  speak  as  if  to  an  audience,  at  times  incoher- 
ently, then  again  with  sentences  of  as  perfect  finish  and 
beauty  as  ever  fell  from  his  lips.  Then  visions  of  light 
and  beauty  would  seem  to  break  upon  him.  It  was  of  the 
experiences  of  one  such  night  that  his  nephew,  Addison, 
wrote : 

I  was  once  helping  to  take  care  of  one  of  God's  servants 
who  was  sick.  He  had  opened  his  heart  to  me  when  I  was 
a  motherless  baby  and  had  taken  me  into  his  home.  In 
after  years  he  had  once  more  opened  heart  and  home  to 
me  when  I  was  a  fatherless  boy ;  and  so  it  was  a  great 
privilege  to  be  a  comfort  to  him  in  his  time  of  need.  For  a 
while  it  was  my  part  to  stay  with  him  at  night.  His  restless- 
ness made  him  talk  in  his  sleep  a  great  deal.  Usually  this 
talk  was  incoherent.  All  the  lines  of  association  in  his  mind 
seemed  to  be  inextricably  tangled,  and  his  thoughts  crossed 
and  re-crossed  as  the  telephone  messages  might  do  in  a  city 
where  a  storm  had  caused  confusion  along  all  the  wires. 

But  one  night  it  was  different.    The  day  before,  we  had 


394  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

thought  the  end  might  be  drawing  near.  That  night  he- 
had  glorious  visions.  I  had  faUen  asleep  and  was  awakened 
by  the  sound  of  his  voice.  He  was  asleep,  but  that  voice 
was  full  and  deep,  and  might  have  swelled  through  a  large 
cathedral,  so  great  was  its  volume.  The  tones  were  not 
only  rich  and  resonant,  but  there  was  in  them  a  majesty  that 
I  had  never  known  before.  The  utterance  was  solemn  and 
deliberate,  a  slight  pause  between  the  syllables,  a  longer 
pause  between  the  words ;  and  there  was  one  constant  re- 
frain that  began  his  sentences — "End-less — beauty !  End- 
less— beauty !"  Scores  and  scores  of  times  did  the  words- 
ring  forth.  "Daz-zling — ra-diant — un-fading!"  also  fell 
from  his  lips.  As  I  lay  there  in  the  small  hours  of  the  night, 
it  seemed  to  me  that  I  was  in  the  presence  of  a  soul  that  was- 
hovering  on  the  borders  of  the  other  world  and  over- 
whelmed by  the  glory  of  what  it  saw.  Over  and  over  again 
the  large  and  silent  house  resounded  with  the  words,  "End- 
less— beauty !  End-less  beauty  !"  Did  he  see  the  King  in 
His  beauty  ?  Did  he  behold  Him  who  is  the  chiefest  among 
ten  thousand  and  the  one  altogether  lovely?  Sometimes 
the  words  "her"  and  "she"  mingled  with  the  others,  and 
then  I  wondered  whether  he  saw  the  smile  on  the  angel- 
face  of  one  whom  he  had 

"  lyoved  long  since  and  lost  awhile." 

On  the  afternoon  of  January  5th  he  had  been  very  rest- 
less, but  towards  evening  sunk  into  a  quiet  sleep.  After 
nightfall  a  change  appeared  quite  suddenly.  He  was  per- 
fectly conscious,  but  evidently  dying.  His  daughter  assured 
him  that  she  was  by  his  side,  for  he  seemed  to  see  no  one, 
but,  she  added.  '■Jesus  is  with  you,  which  is  far  better."  He 
pressed  her  hand,  but  did  not  speak.  At  intervals  she  re- 
peated to  him  the  first  verse  of  Bonar's  hymn — 
"  I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say," 

and  the  twenty-third  Psalm,  which  he  had  so  often  called 
"that  singing  angel  among  the  Psalms."  Each  time  he 
warmly  pressed  her  hand.  These  words  of  affection  and  en- 
couragement were  continued  whenever  he  roused  from  the 
short  dozes  into  which  he  fell.  About  ten  o'clock  he  called 
her  name  distinctly,  "Mary,"  and  never  spoke  again. 


Closing  Years.  395 

From  that  time  on  his  l^reath  came  slower  and  fainter. 
There  was  no  snapping  of  the  cord ;  only  a  sinking  of  the 
flame  until,  a  little  after  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
6th,  the  vital  spark  was  gone.  His  hands  were  folded  peace- 
fully across  his  breast  as  he  had  lain  for  hours,  and  soon  the 
calm  majesty  of  death  came  to  his  face  and  smoothed  away 
all  the  marks  of  pain.  As  one  looked  upon  the  still  counte- 
nance, and  thought  of  the  wealth  of  thought  and  fancy  and 
reminiscence  that  had  lain  behind  that  noble  brow,  and  that 
had  found  expression  upon  those  once  mobile  lips,  one  could 
only  recall  the  Psalmist's  words,  "In  that  very  hour  his 
thoughts  perish."  So  it  seems,  indeed.  How  many  times, 
in  the  writing  of  these  pages  have  we  needed  just  the  one 
word  that  he  alone  could  speak.  There  are  treasures  that  a 
man  gathers  in  life  that  he  takes  from  the  world  when  he 
leaves  it;  but  do  they  perish?  That  which  is  gathered  in 
righteousness  and  used  for  God  is  laid  up  in  heaven;  and 
the  man  who  is  freighted  with  such  treasures  cannot  perish, 
but  enters  on  a  nobler  work  in  a  higher  sphere.  It  would 
seem  that  even  the  materialist  is  under  obligations  to  account 
for  the  disappearance  from  the  earth  of  so  much  force  and 
power;  but  One  who  needed  not  to  speculate,  because  he 
knew,  has  said,  "Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also."  And  Dr. 
Hoge's  motto  gives  the  answer  of  faith,  "Resurgam.'' 

By  Dr.  Hoge's  explicit  directions  the  funeral  services  were 
marked  with  the  utmost  simplicity.  He  stipulated  that  there 
should  be  no  flowers,  and  no  funeral  address.  The  casket 
of  cedar  wood  was  covered  with  plain  black  cloth,  upon 
which  were  laid  two  palm  branches.  There  were  no  mourn- 
ing emblems  in  the  church.  "The  crepe  is  worn  on  our 
hearts,"  said  an  old  gentleman,  who  had  been  impressed  in 
his  youth  by  Dr.  Hoge's  university  sermons,  and  late  in  life 
came  from  an  adjoining  county  to  unite  with  his  church. 
The  church  was  crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity,  but  not 
more  than  it  had  often  been  to  hear  the  voice  that  was  now 
still.      jNIr.    Guthrie   and    Dr.    James    P.    Smith   made   the 


39^  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

prayers ;  Dr.  Witherspoon  and  Dr.  Kerr  read  the  scriptures, 
and  Messrs.  Stewart  and  Cook,  pastors  of  the  churches 
founded  by  him,  announced  the  hymns.  Hymns,  prayers 
and  scriptures  were  full  of  all  that  could  give  uplift  and 
hope ;  but  when  the  slow  procession  began  to  move  through 
the  aisle,  bearing  forever  from  his  church  the  pastor  of 
nearly  fifty-four  years,  the  long  pent-up  emotions  of  the 
great  throng  broke  forth  in  half-stifled  sobs  all  over  the 
building.  When  the  procession  passed  into  the  street, 
though  there  was  no  pageant  to  attract  the  crowd,  the  multi- 
tude without  was  found  to  be  vastly  greater  than  the  assem- 
bly within ;  and  thousands  lined  the  long  way  by  which  the 
procession  was  to  pass. 

Before  the  Sabbath  sun  had  set  on  the  short  winter's  day, 
the  spot  in  Hollywood  where  his  loved  ones  lay  was  reached, 
and  with  a  few  words  of  prayer  and  benediction  his  mortal 
part  was  committed  to  the  ground.  And  there  he  sleeps ;  by 
the  wife  who  walked  beside  him  in  loving  helpfulness;  with 
the  little  ones  who  brightened  his  home  for  a  season ;  with 
the  brother  with  whom  he  held  sweet  converse,  and  with 
whom  he  had  lain  on  this  very  spot  in  the  fulness  of  life  and 
•communed  of  all  that  was  in  their  hearts;  with  the  un- 
counted hundreds  at  whose  graves  he  had  spoken  of  "J^sus 
and  the  resurrection;"  with  the  great  and  heroic  dead  of 
Virginia  and  the  Confederacy,  to  whom  he  had  so  often  paid 
eloquent  tribute;  in  the  soil  of  that  Virginia  he  so  loyally 
served  and  so  devotedly  loved ;  by  the  noble  river  that  sings 
the  requiem  of  the  dead  who  sleep  beside  its  banks. 

And  like  the  river,  the  stream  of  humanity  flows  on.  As 
one  drove  home  in  the  solemn  evening  and  looked  upon  the 
living  throngs  moving  in  the  scenes  that  had  known  him, 
and  treading  the  streets  that  should  know  him  no  more,  one 
thought,  What  becomes  of  a  life  spent  in  the  service  of  hu- 
manity? What  remains  of  the  toil  and  tears  of  these  many 
seasons?  This  one  will  return  to  his  farm,  and  that  one  to 
his  merchandise,  and  that  to  his  pleasure.     The  stone  falls 


Closing  Years.  397 

into  the  river  and  makes  a  few  ripples  for  a  moment,  and 
then  the  river  closes  over  it  and  flows  on  as  before. 

But  happier  thoughts  come  after.  The  sun  floods  the 
earth  by  day  and  leaves  no  ray  to  illumine  the  night.  The 
rain  of  yesterday  is  dried  from  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day. 
The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth  and  thou  hearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh  nor 
whither  it  goeth.  But  in  the  verdure  of  the  fields,  the  beauty 
of  the  flowers,  in  the  harvests  of  golden  grain,  and  the  rich 
fruitage  of  the  earth,  wind  and  rain  and  sunshine  are  stored 
to  fill  our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness.  So  a  man's  name 
may  perish  from  the  earth ;  the  memory  of  what  he  was  and 
of  what  he  did  may  fade  away ;  but  the  influence  and  power 
and  life  of  the  man  live  on  in  other  hearts,  and  reproduce 
themselves  in  other  lives,  until  all  are  garnered  at  last  in  the 
eternal  "harvest  home." 

"I  never  date  a  letter  at  the  beginning  of  a  year,"  he  wrote 
his  sister  one  New  Year's  day,  "without  some  emotion. 
When  I  write  )^ou  a  letter  and  date  it  January  i,  1900,  that 
will  look  stranger  still."  In  the  year  preceding  that  date 
they  both  passed  from  time  into  eternity ;  but,  marking  well 
the  years  as  they  passed,  and  filling  them  with  work  for  God 
and  man,  they  have  learned  that — 

"  Life  a  winter's  morn  may  prove 
To  a  bright  endless  year." 


CHAPTER  XV. 
Character  and  Work. 

"Why  does  the  Mohammedan  put  a  man  on  the  top  of  the  minaret?  He 
thought  of  the  trumpet  that  once  summoned  the  congregation  of  Israel  to  wor- 
ship ;  he  thought  of  the  bells  that  still  summon  Christian  people  to  worship  ; 
but  at  last  he  thought  of  the  human  voice.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing  like  the 
human  voice  for  impressing  human  hearts.  So  it  will  be  to  the  end  of  time." — 
Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

HERE  we  would  fain  lay  down  our  pen  and  feel  that  our 
task  is  done,  with  thankfulness  that  so  much  of  the 
man  survives ;  with  a  sigh  that  so  much  is  irrevocably  gone. 
The  orator's  influence  is  necessarily  limited  in  great  part  to 
his  contemporaries.  The  eloquence  of  Demosthenes  is  more 
than  a  tradition  only  because  of  his  written  masterpieces; 
but  who  that  has  read  them  has  not  longed  to  sit  in  the  Pnyx 
under  the  blue  arch  of  that  incomparable  sky,  with  the  white- 
templed  Acropolis  above  him,  and  the  blue  bay  of  Salamis 
before  him,  and  all  around  the  "violet  crown"  of  Athens' 
hills,  and  to  come  under  the  spell  of  voice  and  action  and 
man,  as  the  great  thoughts  surged  through  his  soul,  while 
he  plead  for  honor  and  for  liberty,  and  hurled  forth  those 
invectives  against  their  ambitious  adversary  that  have  ever 
since  given  name  to  denunciatory  eloquence  ?  Who  has  not 
longed  to  stand  in  the  Forum  amid  the  monuments  of 
Rome's  storied  greatness  and  hear  the  voice  that  poured 
forth  the  rotund  periods  that  we  call  Ciceronian?  Or  to 
gather  with  the  awed  and  silent  throngs  that  filled  the  great 
church  where  the  "Grand  Monarch"  lay  in  solemn  state  amid 
the  pageantry  of  France,  and  await  with  expectant  hush  the 
magic  of  Massillon's  voice,  and  feel  the  thrill  of  those  first 
w^ords,  "There  is  nothing  great  but  God,"  while  his  voice 
seemed  the  only  voice,  and  those  words  the  only  words 


Character  and  Work.  399 

worthy  to  break  such  silence?     But  there  is  no  magic  that 
•can  renew  that  speh,  or  give  back 

—  "the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." 

Dr.  Hoge  was  a  voice;  and  when  a  voice  is  silent,  it  is 
gone.  He  himself  recognized  this  and  spoke  of  it;  but  he 
had  chosen  deliberately,  and  he  chose  wisely.  Those  to 
whom  God  has  given  the  divine  power  of  eloquence  dare  not 
choose  otherwise ;  for,  as  he  himself  said  in  the  words  at  the 
head  of  the  chapter,  ''There  is  nothing  like  the  human  voice 
for  impressing  human  hearts.  So  it  will  be  to  the  end  of 
time." 

But  to  be  a  voice — a  human  voice — one  must  be  a  man. 
The  voice  can  only  give  out  what  lies  behind  it.  The  night- 
ingale breathes  out  sweetness,  and  the  dove  sounds  its  mourn- 
ful plaint ;  the  lamb  bleats  its  helplessness,  and  the  lion  roars 
its  savage  strength ;  but  to  speak  to  men  of  what  concerns 
men,  one  must  be  a  man.  To  speak  to  men  of  the  things  of 
God,  one  must  be  born  of  God. 

What  shall  we  say,  then,  concerning  this  man — this  man 
of  God  ?  While  one  lives  whom  we  love  and  honor,  we  are 
content  to  love  and  honor  him.  We  rejoice  in  what  he  is  and 
in  what  he  does.  We  sit  down  under  his  shadow  with  great 
delight,  and  his  fruit  is  sweet  to  our  taste.  But  when  he  is 
dead,  we  seek  to  place  him.  He  belongs  to  the  great  com- 
pany of  the  past  who  have  blessed  the  world  with  their  lives, 
and  on  the  walls  of  the  great  temple  of  their  fame  we  seek  to 
find  his  niche. 

But  such  a  work  is  not  for  us.  With  loving  and  reverent 
pen  we  have  sought  to  tell  some  things  that  he  did  and  some 
things  that  he  said,  that — so  far  as  might  be — he  might 
speak  and  act  in  these  pages  as  he  spoke  and  acted  in  life.  If 
this  has  failed,  no  characterization  we  could  now  give  would 
redeem  the  failure.  If  it  has  succeeded,  no  characterization 
is  necessary. 

Nevertheless,  at  the  risk  of  a  seeming  inconsistency,  there 


400  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

are  some  things  that  must  be  gathered  up  and  given  in  more 
orderly  statement  than  was  possible  in  the  course  of  our 
narrative,  before  we  can  feel  that  our  task  is  done;  and  we 
are  fortunate  in  this :  that  in  what  is  most  necessary  of  all, 
the  analysis  of  his  pulpit  power,  another  has  already  said 
just  what  we  would  like  to  have  said,  but  which  we  could  not 
have  said  so  well. 

Dr.  Hoge's  appearance  would  have  commanded  attention 
ill  any  assembly,  under  any  circumstances.  His  brow  was 
high  and  noble ;  his  nose  strongly  and  keenly  aquiline ;  his 
mouth  large,  firm  and  flexible;  the  chin  broad  and  strong, 
but  not  heav3^  His  cheek  was  furrowed  with  deep  lines  that 
met  beneath  his  chin.  His  neck  was  long  and  capable  of  re- 
markable elongation — one  of  his  most  expressive  gestures. 
His  complexion  was  swarthy,  but  clearer  in  later  life  than  in 
his  younger  years;  and  his  fine  brown  hair,  brushed  back 
from  his  brow,  was  never  decidedly  gray.  For  many  years 
he  wore  no  beard  except  a  closely  clipped  moustache. 

But  the  eyes  were  the  expressive  feature  of  the  face.  He 
had  his  mother's  eyes ;  and,  like  hers,  they  were  called  black, 
brown,  hazel — everything  but  blue,  which  they  were  not, 
and  gray,  which  they  were.  The  uncertainty  was  due  to  the 
wonderful  expansive  power  of  the  pupil;  but  the  changes 
of  expression  were  still  more  remarkable ;  now  melting  into 
the  most  winsome  tenderness,  now  burning  with  the  intensity 
of  an  eagle's,  now  dancing  in  merriment,  now  grave  or  sad. 

His  fine  head  was  finely  poised,  though  set  on  shoulders 
too  sloping  for  the  ideal  of  manly  strength.  But  strong  he 
was.  He  was  too  spare  to  be  considered  muscular,  but  his 
muscles  were  like  finely  tempered  steel.  His  hands  were 
slender  and  delicate,  but  he  had  a  grip  like  a  vise.  He  stood 
just  six  feet  in  height,  but  was  so  slender  as  to  appear  even 
taller.  He  was  always  in  motion,  like  a  high-bred  horse,  and 
could  never  endure  to  be  still ;  but  he  could  endure  exertion 
with  tireless  tenacity.  He  was  good  at  such  manly  sports  as 
were  in  vogue  in  his  youth — except  fishing,  which  did  not 


Character  and  Work.  401 

accord  with  his  temperament — but  was  at  his  best  on  horse- 
back. He  rode  superbly,  always  maintaining  the  Virginia 
seat,  in  which  man  and  beast  are  as  one.  He  rode  to  the  last. 
When  so  ill  at  the  White  Sulphur  Springs  the  summer  before 
he  died,  that  Dr.  McGuire  seemed  discouraged  about  his 
case,  he  said,  "Never  mind.  Doctor,  I'll  ride  by  your  house 
on  Lucile,  some  morning  in  October,  before  you  are  out  of 
bed."    And  so  he  did. 

No  one  ever  called  Dr.  Hoge  a  handsome  man ;  but  no  one 
ever  failed  to  recognize  him  as  a  brilliant  and  distinguished- 
looking  man.  Just  what  he  was,  however,  strangers  could 
not  always  make  out.  When  going  to  deliver  an  address  in 
Charleston,  the  other  three  seats  in  a  Pullman  section  were 
taken  up  by  three  gentlemen  from  that  city.  They  did 
their  best  to  be  polite.  One  of  them  brought  out  a  bottle  and 
passed  it  to  him  with  the  others.  He  politely  declined.  No- 
thing daunted,  they  proposed  that  he  join  them  in  a  game  of 
cards.  Again  a  polite  refusal;  but,  after  playing  a  while 
without  him,  they  proposed  poker  for  a  small  stake,  saying, 
"This  is  a  game  that  will  just  suit  you."  When  that  failed, 
they  gave  him  up  for  a  time,  until  the  Charleston  papers  were 
brought  on  the  train.  Having  purchased  one,  a  member  of 
the  party,  looking  over  it,  came  to  the  account  of  the  expected 
address  before  the  Bible  Society.  A  light  seemed  to  dawn, 
and,  pointing  to  the  heading,  he  said  to  Dr.  Hoge,  "Is  that 
your  name  ?"  The  mystery  being  solved,  they  dropped  other 
forms  of  amusement,  and  fell  into  conversation,  in  which 
he  so  charmed  them  that  they  showed  him  marked  attentions 
when  they  reached  the  city,  and  afterwards  declared  he  was 
the  most  interesting  man  they  had  ever  met.  One  would  be 
in  doubt,  perhaps,  as  to  whether  he  was  a  military  or  a  pro- 
fessional man;  but,  while  there  was  nothing  unclerical 
about  his  appearance,  there  was  nothing  to  suggest  the  eccle- 
siastic. 

Dr.  Hoge's  portrait  was  several  times  painted  by  the  late 
William  Garl  Brown.    A  bust  portrait  is  in  possession  of  his 


402  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

daughter,  Mrs.  Gilliam,  and  a  three-quarter  length  portrait, 
with  extended  hand  and  open  palm,  a  favorite  attitude  in 
preaching,  hangs  in  the  lecture-room  of  his  church ;  a  similar 
one  was  presented  by  Mr.  O.  F.  Bresee,  of  Baltimore,  to  the 
Philanthropic  Society  of  Hampden-Sidney  College.  A  suc- 
cessful bust  of  him  was  modelled  by  Moynihan. 

It  is,  perhaps,  unusual  that  the  physical  man  so  correctly 
represents  the  intellectual  man  as  in  Dr.  Hoge's  case.  His 
intellect  was  conspicuous  for  fineness  of  quality  and  vigor  of 
action,  rather  than  for  massiveness.  His  fancy  was  light  of 
wing  and  wide  of  range.  His  logical  processes  were  quick 
and  keen.  His  judgment  had  the  swiftness  and  soundness 
almost  of  intuition.  His  perceptions  were  immediate,  and 
his  memory  marvellously  retentive  and  exact.  All  that  he 
had  read,  and  all  that  he  had  seen,  seemed  to  be  his  for  all 
time,  and,  better  still,  was  always  at  his  command,  coming  to 
his  mind,  seemingly  unbidden,  just  when  needed. 

This  quality  of  readiness,  indeed,  was  probably  his  most 
unique  excellence,  pervading  the  whole  man,  and  manifesting 
itself  in  every  position  in  which  he  was  placed.  He  never 
seemed  embarrassed — never  at  a  loss.  Once  when  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  was  meeting  in  a  city  at  the  time  of  the  closing 
exercises  of  a  large  school  for  young  ladies,  one  of  the  great- 
est divines  and  orators  in  the  country  was  to  make  the  ad- 
dress to  the  graduates,  and  Dr.  Hoge  was  to  deliver  the 
medals.  The  orator  of  the  occasion  saw  before  he  began 
that  his  ammunition  was  too  heavy  for  the  occasion.  He 
confided  his  difficulty  to  Dr.  Hoge,  who  tried  to  persuade 
him  to  throw  his  manuscript  aside  and  make  an  extempore 
address ;  but  he  was  unwilling  to  trust  himself.  His  address 
was  learned  and  deep  and  long,  and  the  girls,  wearied  with 
their  labors  and  preparations  for  the  occasion,  nearly  fell  over 
each  other  in  their  fatigue  before  it  was  over.  When  the 
time  came  for  the  delivery  of  the  medals,  Dr.  Hoge  fairly 
bubbled  over  with  gaiety.  He  glanced  from  one  thing  to 
another  with  such  a  light  touch  and  such  humorous  fancy 


Character  and  Work.  403 

■that  the  girls  were  revived  as  with  sparkling  wine.  Sud- 
denly there  was  a  hitch.  At  the  moment  when  a  medal 
should  have  been  delivered  and  the  modest  maiden  was 
standing  before  him  to  receive  it,  it  could  not  be  found.  An 
embarrassing  pause  was  about  to  follow,  when  he  tore  a 
piece  of  ivy  from  the  decorations  of  a  pillar,  deftly  twined  it 
into  a  chaplet,  and,  amid  a  storm  of  applause,  placed  it  upon 
lier  head,  with  some  happy  word.  Just  then  the  medal  was 
produced  and  duly  presented  amid  fresh  applause,  and  the 
girl,  who  was  on  the  point  of  mortification,  was  sent  to  her 
seat  the  happiest  of  them  all. 

In  more  serious  matters  this  readiness  was  more  than  the 
happy  faculty  of  doing  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time.  It 
was  the  divine  spark  that  distinguishes  genius  from  mere 
talent.  It  may  be  difficult  to  define  genius,  but  in  nothing  is 
its  presence  more  marked  than  in  this :  that  under  the  glow 
of  excitement,  and  in  the  emergency  of  a  crisis,  all  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  soul  are  keyed  to  their  highest  pitch,  and  the 
mind  works  with  a  facility,  a  brilliancy  and  a  power  that  sur- 
prises itself.  This  is  the  exaltation  that  a  great  general  feels 
in  the  crisis  and  strain  of  battle ;  this  is  the  "divine  afflatus" 
that  produces  the  poetry  that  lives  and  sings  itself  in  the 
heart;  and  this  is  the  inspiration  of  the  orator,  that  bears 
him  aloft  on  flights  that  could  never  be  wrought  out  in  the 
study. 

At  a  Hampden-Sidney  commencement,  Dr.  Hoge's  dear 
friend  and  class-mate,  Dr.  Dabney,  had  delivered  an  address 
on  the  "New  South."  He  had  given  sound  advice  and  wise 
counsel — urging  the  young  men  before  him  to  accept  present 
conditions  and  throw  their  whole  energies  into  the  work  of 
building  up  the  New  South  until  it  should  be  the  equal  of  the 
old ;  but  it  was  evident  that  his  heart  was  with  the  old,  and 
that  his  hope  for  the  future  was  not  bright.  Twice  in  the 
■course  of  his  address  had  all  the  power  of  his  mind  shone  out 
in  a  brilliant  figure — each  time  descriptive  of  the  old  South. 
Once,  in  her  prosperity,   he  compared  her  to  the  bronze 


404  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Athena,  standing  in  massive  strength  upon  the  Hving  rock 
of  the  AcropoHs,  crowned  with  the  insignia  of  victory  and 
empire,  armed  cap-a-pie  to  defy  every  foe,  the  gilded  tip  of 
her  burnished  spear  catching  every  ray  of  the  sun,  and  guid- 
ing the  sailor  from  afar  as  he  brought  the  products  of  every- 
clime,  to  lay  them  at  her  feet. 

Again  he  had  brought  tears  to  every  eye  as  he  pictured, 
amid  all  the  pageantry  of  military  display  that  rendered 
brilliant  the  ceremony  of  unveiling  the  statue  of  Stonewall 
Jackson,  the  tattered  remnant  of  the  old  Stonewall  Brigade,, 
as  they  marched  amid  the  gay  throngs  to  do  honor  to  their 
old  chief.  Then,  he  said,  it  was  that  the  enthusiasm  was 
wildest,  that  such  cheers  and  huzzas  rent  the  air  as  the 
young  soldiers,  in  all  their  brilliant  array,  were  unable  to 
evoke.  The  hearts  of  the  people  turned  to  the  Old  South  in 
its  poverty  and  defeat,  rather  than  to  the  New  in  its  bravest 
show. 

Dr.  Hoge  had  to  speak  the  next  day.  He  wished  to  give  a 
m.ore  hopeful  turn  to  the  subject  without  seeming  to  criticise 
or  antagonize  his  old  friend.  He  was  handling  the  matter 
as  delicately  as  he  could,  but  as  Dr.  Dabney  sat  before  him, 
he  could  see  that  his  face  was  unresponsive.  He  determined 
to  win  him,  and  in  an  instant  the  whole  thought  flashed  be- 
fore him.  It  was  complicated  and  hazardous.  A  false  touch 
would  ruin  it  all,  and  Mrs.  Jackson  and  Julia  were  in  the 
audience,  making  delicate  handling  more  necessary ;  but  as 
these  things  passed  through  his  mind,  he  had  already  begun  : 
"When  my  honored  friend  said  yesterday  that  it  was  the 
appearance  of  the  old  Stonewall  Brigade  that  evoked  the 
greatest  outburst  of  enthusiasm  on  the  ever-to-be-remem- 
bered day  to  which  he  referred,  he  surely  forgot  one  circum- 
stance. When  the  Governor  of  the  commonwealth  lifted  the 
little  daughter  of  General  Jackson  upon  the  railing  of  the 
platform  and  presented  her  to  the  assembled  multitudes,  then 
it  was  that  the  greatest  shouts  shook  the  air,  that  hats  were 
tossed  highest,  and  flags  and  handkerchiefs  were  waved  in 


Character  and  Work,  405 

the  wildest  enthusiasm,  and  the  old  veterans  themselves 
almost  tore  the  earth  in  the  exuberance  of  their  joy.  For 
why?  General  Jackson  was  dead,  but  his  daughter  still 
lived.  The  Old  South  was  dead,  but  the  New  South  was 
alive;  and  though  now  like  that  slender  girl  standing  on 
the  frail  railing  of  a  temporary  platform,  yet  through  the 
loyal  devotion  and  loving  service  of  these  young  men,  she 
shall  yet  stand  forth  before  the  world  like  the  bronze 
Athena" — and  continued,  almost  word  for  word,  Dr.  Dab- 
ney's  magnificent  description  of  the  day  before.  He  had 
taken  Dr.  Dabney's  two  finest  passages — of  course,  we  have 
only  hinted  the  thought  in  barest  outline — and,  by  the  skilful 
introduction  of  a  new  and  tender  incident,  had  turned  them 
both  into  the  channel  he  desired.  The  interest  was  enhanced 
hy  the  relations  of  both  to  General  Jackson ;  Dr.  Dabney,  his 
chief  of  stafif  and  his  biographer.  Dr.  Hoge  his  eulogist  on 
the  very  day  referred  to ;  and  by  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Jackson 
and  her  daughter  in  the  audience.  Dr.  Hoge  was  hardly  able 
to  complete  the  passage  for  the  storm  of  applause  that  swept 
over  the  audience,  and  when  he  looked  down  at  Dr.  Dabney 
he  was  in  tears.  He  had  touched  the  deepest  springs  of  his 
heart. 

Probably  Dr.  Hoge's  highest  flights  were  reached  under 
circumstances  like  these,  and  it  was  always  true  that  lan- 
guage came  to  him  best  under  the  inspiration  of  an  audience. 
In  his  study,  with  a  pen  in  his  hand,  he  often  sought  pain- 
fully for  the  best  word.  Before  an  audience  he  never  hesi- 
tated for  a  moment,  and  it  was  not  often  that  the  word  could 
be  improved  upon;  but  he  never  suffered  his  readiness  to 
become  a  snare  to  him.  He  never  came  under  the  curse  of 
his  own  facility.  He  knew  that  the  ultimate  standard  by 
which  a  man  was  judged  was  not  readiness,  but  excellence; 
not  how  the  fountain  flowed,  but  the  character  of  the  waters. 
Hence  his  life  was  a  life  of  study.  The  discourse  that  he 
delivered  at  Copenhagen  on  five  minutes'  notice  had  been 
preparing  for  fifty  years ;  you  can  find  the  germ  of  it  in  his 


4o6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

record  of  his  mother's  death  in  his  college  diary.  This  gen- 
eral preparation  was  going  on  all  the  time.  He  kept  in 
communion  with  the  great  masters  of  thought.  He  stored 
his  mind  with  the  best  that  they  had  said  in  prose  and  poetry. 
He  read  the  freshest  and  brightest  of  contemporary  litera- 
ture. He  kept  himself  informed  of  all  that  was  going  on  in 
the  world.  He  studied  not  only  books,  but  events  and  things, 
and,  most  of  all,  men.  He  studied  these  things  for  their  own 
sake;  but  he  studied  them  in  a  higher  relation — as  they 
illustrated  or  confirmed  the  word  of  God,  and  as  the  word  of 
God  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them;  and  that  was, 
after  all,  his  most  inexhaustible  field  of  study.  The  word  of 
Christ  dwelt  in  him  richly.  The  richness  and  variety  of  the 
Bible  was  a  favorite  theme  of  talk  with  him.  He  could  speak 
on  this  theme  as  one  having  authority,  for  from  that  Bible 
he  preached  with  infinite  variety  for  over  fifty  years. 

But  he  did  not  depend  on  general  preparation.  We  have 
all  known  those  who  did;  who,  with  five  minutes'  prepara- 
tion, would  preach  or  speak  on  any  theme.  They  necessarily 
fell  into  monotony  and  vapidity;  no  matter  how  extensive 
their  reading  or  how  general  their  scholarship,  unless  new 
channels  were  cut,  thought  would  flow  in  the  old.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  have  all  seen  those  who  made  only  special 
preparation.  They  select  a  subject,  read  up  on  it,  and  con- 
scientiously prepare  a  discourse,  each  man  according  to  his 
several  ability;  but,  confining  themselves  to  such  prepara- 
tion, they  become  narrow  in  their  range  of  subjects  and 
didactic  in  their  style  of  treatment.  Both  methods  are  neces- 
sary. The  general  preparation  to  give  freshness  of  thought 
and  variety  of  theme,  the  special  to  give  definiteness  of  aim' 
and  exactness  of  thought  to  the  individual  discourse. 

To  make  this  special  preparation  the  more  easily,  Dn 
Hoge  sought  to  record  whatever  impressed  him  in  his  gen- 
eral reading  or  study.  An  earlier  mention  has  been  made  of 
the  "Index  Rerum,"  in  which  this  record  was  kept.  It  was 
a  stout  volume,  small  quarto,  made  of  fine,  thin,  unruled 


Character  and  Work.  407 

paper,  and  divided  into  sections  by  the  letters  of  the  alphabet. 
When  a  subject  entered  his  mind,  he  noted  it  under  its  letter, 
with  any  thoughts  then  occurring  to  him,  and  as  he  read,  in 
books,  magazines,  or  newspapers,  anything  that  bore  upon 
it  was  noted  down.  Or,  if  he  read  an  article  that  impressed 
him,  or  was  struck  by  a  passage  in  a  book,  he  would  note  its 
subject  in  his  Index,  referring  to  the  article  or  book,  and  as 
he  came  to  other  things  upon  the  same  subject,  they  were 
duly  noted  also.  Of  course,  magazines  and  newspapers  that 
were  referred  to  had  to  be  preserved,  and — what  was  more 
difficult — found  when  needed ;  but  this  part  of  the  work  he 
generally  turned  over  to  members  of  his  family.  It  was  the 
special  work  of  his  invalid  daughter  to  preserve  these  fleeting 
treasures,  and  her  wide  reading  constantly  enriched  his  own, 
by  directing  him  to  that  which  she  knew  would  interest  and 
prove  useful  to  him. 

This  was  the  fundamental  secret  of  his  work  and  method. 
The  wealth  of  incident  and  allusion  that  enriched  his  dis- 
course was  not  the  driftage  of  his  current  reading,  nor  the 
flotsam  and  jetsam  cast  up  by  the  tides  of  memory,  but  was 
brought  forth  from  carefully  freighted  cargoes  laden  in  far 
distant  ports,  and  stored  for  future  use;  and  when  these 
stores  did  not  afford  the  merchandise  he  needed,  he  did  just 
what  the  enterprising  merchant  would  do — he  sought  every- 
where until  he  found  it.  When  he  had  to  treat  a  special  sub- 
ject, he  sought  from  specialists  the  best  literature  extant  and 
available.  And — if  we  may  be  pardoned  for  pressing  the 
figure  a  little  farther — he  was  very  solicitous  as  to  the  genu- 
ineness of  his  wares.  In  this  respect  his  habits  were  more 
those  of  the  writer  than  of  the  speaker.  No  pains  were  too 
great  for  the  verification  of  a  quotation,  and  nothing  less 
than  exactness  and  certainty  satisfied  him. 

His  "Index"  was  a  thesaurus,  not  only  of  subjects  and 
treatment,  but,  to  some  extent,  also  of  expression.  Hap- 
pily turned  phrases,  graceful  combinations  of  words,  strik- 
ing expressions  of  thought,  were  noted,  and  passed  into 


4o8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

his  vocabulary;  but,  as  a  rule,  his  preparation  for  the 
pulpit  was  the  preparation  not  of  language,  but  of 
thought. 

Not  so,  however,  with  his  prayers.  Prayer  he  did  not 
consider  the  place  for  "eloquence,"  but  for  the  reverent  and 
devout  expression  of  the  needs  of  the  human  heart.  For 
this  he  felt  that  the  most  careful  preparation  of  language, 
as  well  as  thought,  was  necessary.  Personally,  he  believed 
that  a  moderate  and  flexible  liturgy,  embodying  the  devo- 
tional product  of  all  the  ages,  with  ample  freedom  for  the 
addition  of  such  original  prayers  as  occasion  demanded, 
would  be  the  most  satisfactory  vehicle  of  the  church's  prayer 
and  praise.  The  strongest  argument  for  a  liturgy,  he  felt, 
was  furnished  by  the  careless,  shipshod  and  undignified 
prayers  of  some  of  those  who  most  vehemently  opposed  all 
forms.  This  argument  he  did  much  to  remove  by  his  own 
careful  preparation  for  the  solemn  work  of  leading  the  peo- 
ple's devotion,  so  that  few  who  attended  his  own  ministry 
ever  felt  the  need  of  anything  different;  but  the  elaborate 
and  laborious  preparation  that  he  made  for  this  service,  as 
evinced  by  his  papers,  surely  raises  anew  the  question  of  the 
propriety  of  laying  such  an  additional  burden  upon  the  min- 
istry of  a  church  in  which  so  much  is  expected  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  sermons.  If  a  Moses  Hoge  could  only  attain  excel- 
lence in  this  service  by  such  laborious  means,  and  if  the  stock 
of  Moses  Hoges  is  so  small,  could  not  the  church  profitably 
draw  more  largely  upon  the  devotional  literature  of  the  past  ? 
This  literature  is  the  heritage  of  no  one  branch  of  the  church. 
Much  of  it  comes  down  from  the  primitive  church,  and  some 
of  the  most  important  contributions  to  it  have  been  made  by 
the  great  reformers  whose  work  is  the  special  heritage  of 
the  Presbyterian  family  of  churches.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Dr. 
Hoge's  peculiar  power  in  prayer  was  not  merely  the  result 
of  what  is  called  the  "gift  of  prayer."  Not  only  his  cele- 
brated prayers  on  great  public  occasions  were  carefully  writ- 
ten out,  but  from  his  early  ministry  he  wrote  prayers  for 


Character  and  Work.  409 

'every  variety  of  occasion  and  service,  and  formulated  peti- 
tions on  every  variety  of  topic.^ 

Into  the  make-up  of  the  orator,  and  especially  of  the 
preacher,  there  are  other  qualities  than  those  of  the  intellect. 
The  heart  is  as  important  as  the  head.  We  confess  that  we 
hardly  know  in  which  category  to  place  the  sense  of  humor, 
which  the  ever-delightful  Mrs.  McFadyen — "Our  Sermon 
Taster" — found  so  necessary  for  the  preacher,  and  for  which 
no  examination  was  provided  at  "the  college."  Wit  is,  of 
course,  of  the  intellect,  and  humor  that  is  not  illuminated  by 
wit  is  apt  to  become  a  dull  affair ;  but  humor  in  itself  seems 
to  be  a  part  of  human  sympathy,  showing  one  open-hearted 
to  human  fellowship,  as  well  as  open-eyed  to  human  fun — 
;and  folly.  Dr.  Hoge's  sense  of  the  ridiculous  was  keen,  and 
its  keenness  saved  him  from  those  ofifences  against  the  pro- 
prieties that  so  often  lead  to  the  proverbial  step  out  of  the 
sublime.  For  that  which  was  amusing  without  being  painful 
he  had  great  relish.  His  laugh  was  soft,  but  genuine,  and 
often  punctuated  his  own  telling  of  that  which  amused  him. 
Sometimes  he  would  revel  in  the  various  aspects  of  a  subject 
that  touched  his  sense  of  humor,  bringing  out  one  delightful 
point  in  the  picture  after  another  with  gentle  merriment. 
He  was  never  more  charming  than  when  in  this  vein.  It 
■gave  a  genial  glow  to  his  conversation,  interspersed  with  the 
flash  and  sparkle  of  now  and  then  a  witty  thrust.  He  and 
his  brother  especially  delighted  in  drollery  with  each  other. 
How  rich  was  his  description  of  the  parting  salutation  of 
three  maiden  sisters  in  his  congregation — he  was  not  fond 
of  kissing  at  its  best — 

"Thrice  flew  the  darts,  and  thrice  my  peace  was  slain." 

How  delightful  his  reply  to  his  brother,  who,  when  he 
"had  received  his  first  semi-annual  salary  in  Baltimore,  wrote 
him  to  know  "how  a  man  should  look  when  he  presented  a 
-.check  for  a  thousand  dollars,"  to  take  it  "with  a  jaded  air" — 

'A  few  of  his  prayers  are  published  in  the  Appendix. 


4IO  Moses  Drury  Hoge, 

as  one  to  whom  such  things  had  become  a  weariness !  How 
racy  his  brother's  suggestion  that  the  monument  of  a  certain 
editor  should  be  "a  huge  typographical  error."  Once  the 
two  were  in  the  same  church,  without  knowledge  of  each 
other's  presence,  when  a  good  brother  was  to  preach  whose 
fondness  for  the  word  "stupendous"  had  often  amused  them. 
The  sermon  was  so  far  on  before  the  word  came  out  that 
Dr.  Hoge  feared — as  he  afterwards  said — that  "he  and  stu- 
pendous had  fallen  out,"  but  when  at  last  it  came,  ore 
rotundo,  the  eyes  of  the  brothers  met  across  the  church.  But 
in  all  this  "excellent  fooling"  there  was  never  any  sting.  Dr. 
Hoge's  earlier  letters  were  often  illustrated  with  caricature, 
but  it  would  rarely  have  caused  anything  but  amusement  if 
it  had  come  under  the  eye  of  its  subject.  On  the  platform 
Dr.  Hoge  freely  indulged  his  humor,  but  in  the  pulpit,  even' 
when  preaching  to  children,  his  standard  was  very  severe. 
It  was  a  constant  wonder  to  him  that  ministers  should  think 
there  was  no  way  to  preach  to  children  except  to  make  them 
laugh.  In  ecclesiastical  assemblies,  while  he  did  not  object 
to  a  little  mingling  of  gay  with  grave  in  debate,  he  felt  that 
too  free  merriment  lowered  the  dignity  and  marred  the  deco- 
rum of  such  bodies.  On  solemn  and  sacred  occasions,  when 
others  are  most  easily  moved  to  laughter  by  what  is  ludicrous 
or  amusing,  he  seemed  to  have  lost  even  the  power  to  be 
amused. 

This  contrast  between  ready  sympathy  and  strong  repres- 
sion ran  through  all  his  emotions.  If  his  sympathies  had  not 
been  quick  and  warm  and  deep,  he  could  never  have  had  the 
power  over  the  human  heart  that  he  so  conspicuously  pos- 
sessed. He  could  throw  himself  readily  into  the  mind  of  a 
child,  and  see  with  his  eyes,  leading  him  on  through  tales  of 
wonder  and  endless  delight.  Or  he  would  join  the  little  ones 
in  their  play  with  apparently  as  much  happiness  to  himself  as 
he  gave  to  them.  A  lady  from  her  window  saw  him  stop 
one  morning  in  his  walk  and  hold  his  cane  nearly  to  the 
ground  for  two  tiny  men  to  jump  over.    As  they  gained  con- 


Character  and  Work.  411 

fidence,  he  raised  it  a  little  until  their  limit  was  reached^ 
when  he  went  on  gaily  with  his  walk,  leaving  them  with 
much  higher  opinions  both  of  themselves  and  of  him. 

During  a  visit  from  his  niece,  Mrs.  Wardlaw,  whose  home 
was  in  Brazil,  he  would  take  her  little  child  on  his  shoulder 
and  prance  and  leap  about  the  room  like  a  colt.  Asking  of 
his  niece  the  Portuguese  word  for  horse,  he  told  the  child 
that  he  was  her  cavallo.  Some  time  after,  when  she  heard 
some  allusion  to  "Uncle  Moses,"  she  said,  "Oh!  yes,  he  was 
my  cavallo."    That  was  her  little  conception  of  the  man. 

And  as  he  rejoiced  with  those  that  rejoiced,  so  he  wept 
with  those  that  wept — not  "idle  tears,"  but,  if  tears  at  all^ 
tears  of  genuine  helpfulness  and  sympathy.  Of  practical 
help  he  gave  entirely  too  much.  Theoretically,  he  ap- 
proved of  organized  charity  and  knew  the  dangers  of  in- 
discriminate giving,  which  melancholy  experience  running 
through  many  years  abundantly  confirmed ;  but  he  was  born 
too  soon  to  learn  the  practice  of  this  creed,  and  he  rarely- 
refused  help  to  any  one.  His  house,  too,  was  on  a  prominent 
corner,  immediately  next  to  his  church,  and  an  incessant 
stream  of  applicants  found  him  without  difficulty;  and,  as- 
he  always  valued  his  time  more  than  his  money,  often  to  save 
the  precious  moments,  he  would  cut  short  the  interruption 
by  doing  what  was  asked,  even  when  against  his  judgment. 
To  his  brother  ministers  in  less  favored  circumstances  he- 
was  a  constant  friend,  and  many  were  the  checks  that  went 
from  his  little  study  to  relieve  .burdened  hearts  and  make 
them  preach  with  freer  spirit  the  gospel  of  love. 

And  in  all  sorrow  his  tender  heart  was  a  fellow-sufferer. 

He  had  known  sorrow ;  the  deepest  sorrows  of  life ;  and  with. 

a  deeper  significance  he  could  echo  the  words  of  the  heathen 

queen — 

"Non  ignara  mali,  miseris  sucurrere  disco," 

for  he  served  One  of  whom  it  could  be  said,  "We  have  not 
a  high  priest  which  cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
our  infirmities ;  but  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are."' 


412  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

No  one  ever  saw  Dr.  Hoge  in  the  chamber  of  sickness  or  the 
house  of  mourning,  no  one  ever  heard  the  inexpressible  pa- 
thos of  his  voice  in  prayer  for  those  who  were  in  sorrow,  or 
in  sin;  in  recounting  a  touching  incident,  or  in  making  a 
moving  appeal,  who  did  not  feel  that  inexhaustible  fountains 
of  tenderness  lay  behind  his  words.  People  used  to  say  there 
were  "tears  in  his  voice." 

They  were  not  often  in  his  eyes.  His  power  of  repression 
and  self-command  was  manifest  here  as  in  the  play  of  his 
humor.  He  mastered  his  emotion,  and  thereby  the  emotions 
of  others.  He  was  seldom  mastered  by  it.  Sometimes  the 
strong  man  was  bowed,  as  when  a  beloved  daughter  told  him 
that  she  must  undergo  a  severe  and  dangerous  operation,  he 
sank  on  the  floor,  buried  his  face  in  her  lap,  and  sobbed  like 
a  child,  saying,  "I  never  expect  to  be  happy  again."  But  this 
was  never  in  public,  and  is  only  told  now  that  men  may  know 
the  strength  of  those  emotions  that  he  kept  under  such  strong 
control. 

The  same  was  true  of  those  more  strenuous  passions  of 
our  nature.  Without  such  passions  he  could  not  have  been 
a  leader  and  a  master  of  strong  men.  In  his  youth  and  early 
manhood  he  was  of  violent  temper;  but  he  learned  that 
temperance,  which  Ruskin  says  is  "the  power  that  controls 
the  most  intense  energy,  and  prevents  its  acting  in  any  way 
except  as  it  ought."  Such  a  nature  is  like  steam — very  dan- 
gerous in  a  defective  boiler,  but  controlled  in  a  mighty 
engine,  what  a  power  for  good !  In  the  pulpit  his  indigna- 
tion would  sometimes  blaze  forth  against  some  wrong  with 
the  very  white  heat  of  passion,  or  a  torrent  of  denunciation 
would  burst  forth  and  threaten  to  sweep  all  before  it ;  but  in 
private  he  never  stormed.  If  he  was  displeased,  it  was  mani- 
fested, not  by  what  he  said,  but  by  what  he  did  not  say,  unless 
he  felt  it  incumbent  to  administer  a  rebuke;  which  he  did 
gently,  or  scathingly,  as  the  case  seemed  to  require;  but 
never  with  passion.  This  constant  self-mastery  was  the 
secret  of  his  mastery  of  others. 


Character  and  Work.  413, 

It  was  also  tlie  secret — or  one  secret — of  his  mastery  of  an 
audience.      The   dehberation   with   which   he   surveyed   an 
audience  before  he  began  to  speak  was  sometimes  embarrass- 
ing to  those  who  did  not  know  him.    A  minister  in  another 
city  for  whom  he  was  preaching  says  that  when  Dr.  Hoge 
arose  and  stood  in  silence,  he  said  to  himself,  "Jones,  you 
will  have  to  preach  to-day;   that  man's  sick."    A  few  min- 
utes after  he  began,  he  thought,  "Jones,  you  will  not  have  to 
preach  to-day,"  and  after  fifteen  minutes,  "Jones,  you  never 
did  preach  in  your  life."     What  strangers  sometimes — not 
often — mistook  for  hesitation  was  only  deliberation.     He 
was  gauging  the  audience  and  riveting  their  attention.    The 
same  deliberation  kept  him  from  being  thrown  off.  his  feet  by- 
embarrassing  situations.    Once,  at  the  height  of  his  powers, 
he  had  to  deliver  an  address  at  the  University  of  Virginia. 
Driven  by  other  work,  he  had  left  most  of  his  preparation  to 
the  night  before  leaving  home.     He  sat  up  late,  and  he 
worked  hard,  but  "the  chariot  wheels  drave  heavily."     The- 
next  morning  was  full  of  work,  and  in  the  afternoon  he  took 
the  train,  studying  his  notes  on  the  way.     On  leaving  the 
train  he  forgot  his  notes  and  left  them  in  the  car.     He  went 
straight  to  his  room  and  spent  the  time  before  the  lecture 
straightening  out  his  thoughts,  taking  only  a  cup  of  tea  in 
his  room.    He  went  to  the  hall  and  found  himself,  of  course,, 
before  a  brilliant  audience.     For  a  while  all  went  well,  but 
suddenly  his  train  of  thought  left  him.     He  betook  himself" 
to  the  college  boy's  expedient  of  a  glass  of  water,  but  in  his 
case  it  excited  no  suspicion.     He  recalled  the  thought  as  he 
was  drinking,  but,  wishing  to  fix  it  all  clearly  before  he  spoke- 
again,  he  stood  purposely  feeling  for  his  handkerchief  in 
every  pocket  but  the  right  one.     At  last  he  "found"  it,  de- 
liberately wiped  his  mouth,  and  proceeded  with  his  address, 
not  only  without  a  hitch,  but  with  growing  interest  and 
power  to  the  end.     He  found  afterwards  that  no  one  had 
even  suspected  his  embarrassment. 

The  mingled  strength  and  sympathy  of  Dr.  Hoge's  char- 


414  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

acter,  was  just  the  strength  and  sympathy  of  his  creed.  The 
God  of  the  Calvinist  is  a  God  of  inexorable  justice,  and  yet 
of  infinite  compassion.  The  gospel  of  the  Calvinist  satisfies 
inexorable  law  by  a  sacrifice  of  infinite  love.  The  faith  of 
the  Calvinist  is  willing  to  leave  all  things  to  God's  eternal 
decree,  because  it  trusts  his  unerring  wisdom^  and  his  un- 
fathomable love.  The  conscience  of  the  Calvinist  requires 
implicit  obedience,  because  the  heart  has  answered  unmerited 
love  by  absolute  devotion.  Calvinism,  in  the  sympathy  and 
self-sacrifice  with  which  it  seeks  to  save  men,  is  a  constant 
repetition  of  Samson's  riddle,  "Out  of  the  strong  came  forth 
sweetness." 

Dr.  Hoge  inherited  this  creed,  with  the  martyr  blood  of 
those  who  had  held  it,  and  for  the  sake  of  it  loved  not  their 
lives  unto  death.  Under  its  forming  influence  his  youthful' 
mind  grew  into  a  knowledge  of  God  and  his  universe.  In 
his  maturity  he  embraced  it  with  the  approval  of  his  intellect 
and  the  devotion  of  his  heart.  He  loved  the  history  of  its 
heroic  past;  the  homes  it  had  blessed,  the  men  it  had  pro- 
duced, the  martyrs  who  had  died  for  it.  He  rejoiced  in  the 
progress  and  achievements  of  its  living  present;  its  institu- 
tions of  learning,  its  missionary  enterprises,  and  its  great 
representative  councils.  The  inconsistencies  of  his  creed 
were  just  the  inconsistencies  of  his  character.  Strong,  yet 
tender;  unyielding,  but  gentle;  principles  like  flint  and 
sympathies  like  wax;  intense  devotion  to  his  own  church 
and  creed,  sincere  fellowship  with  all  others.  Such  is  the 
faith,  such  was  the  man.  Read  the  riddle  of  the  one,  and  you 
Tiave  solved  the  problem  of  the  other. 

This  faith  he  kept  freshly  flowing  and  glowing  bright  by 
the  active  work  he  did  for  God,  of  which  we  have  seen  much ; 
and  by  the  hours  he  spent  alone  with  God  and  His  word,  of 
which  we  have  said  little.  What  passed  behind  the  closed 
door  of  that  little  study  we  know  no  more  than  we  do  of 
those  nights  in  the  desert  and  on  the  mountain  which  his 
Lord  passed  in  prayer.     He  kept  no  diary  to  register  his 


Character  and  Work.  415 

spiritual  temperature,  like  the  old  divines;  and  he  had  none 
of  the  modern  cant  that  boasts  of  spiritual  experiences.  Men 
only  knew  this  :  that  when  he  came  forth  he  was  transfigured 
before  them ;  that  when  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  tem- 
perance and  judgment  to  come,  they  trembled;  that  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come  became  very  real  and  present  to 
their  lives,  and  Christ  and  heaven  very  precious  to  their 
souls. 

And  were  there  no  faults  in  this  character?  Oh,  yes! 
Some  of  them,  faults  of  nature,  we  have  spoken  of  as  over- 
come by  grace.  Some,  perhaps,  continued,  at  least  as  foibles, 
to  the  end ;  but  what  of  these  ?  Would  their  recital  make  the 
picture  truer?  Does  the  artist  paint  by  the  microscope? 
There  are  spots  in  the  sun — 

"The  very  source  and  fount  of  day 
Is  dashed  with  wandering  isles  of  night." 

But  the  eye  does  not  see  them ;  we  only  rejoice  in  the  light 
and  life  and  heat.  There  is  fault  and  folly  enough  in  the 
world  that  we  do  not  have  to  seek  for.  When  God  gives  us 
one  who  is  "a  burning  and  a  shining  light,"  we  should  be 
''willing  for  a  season  to  rejoice  in  his  light,"  and  through 
it  to  look  more  lovingly  and  longingly  for  "the  true  Light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world." 

Such — at  least  in  part — was  the  man  as  we  have  known 
him,  who  for  over  half  a  century  preached  in  one  city  to  ever- 
thronging  multitudes  the  everlasting  gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God,  and  who  in  midsummer  kept  churches  in  strange  cities 
filled  with  crowds  eager  to  hear  the  same  gospel ;  who  pre- 
sented Christ  and  the  better  life  to  thousands  of  young  col- 
lege men  and  women  all  over  our  land;  who  preached  to 
-ever  a  hundred  thousand  soldiers  and  twice  jeoparded  his 
life  in  running  the  blockade  to  secure  for  them  the  word  of 
God ;  who  was  known  and  loved  on  four  continents,  and  was 
heard  with  honor  in  the  highest  councils  of  the  church ;  who 
was  welcomed  in  the  homes  of  the  great,  the  friend  of  nobles 
iind  statesmen,  and  ministered  with  love  and  sympathy  in  the 


4i6  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

cottages  of  the  poor,  and  in  the  crowded  tenements  of  the 
slums;  who,  in  all  circumstances  and  under  all  conditions^ 
adorned  and  dignified  the  title  of  man,  of  gentleman,  and  of 
minister;  to  whom  Christians  of  every  name  gave  prece- 
dence as  an  uncrowned  prince  of  the  church,  and  whom  all 
citizens  delighted  to  honor  as  the  first  citizen  of  the  common- 
wealth ;  who  toiled  with  unflagging  devotion  from  youth  to 
old  age  in  the  service  of  God  and  his  fellow-men,  and  fell  at 
his  post  in  the  midst  of  his  labors;  who  left  three  churches 
as  his  monument  in  the  city  of  his  labor  and  his  love,  and 
who  left  as  the  inscription  for  his  simple  tomb  only  this : 

MOSES  DRURY  HOGE. 

Born  September  17,  1818.         Died  January  6,  1899. 

For  fifty-four  years  pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church, 

Richmond,  Va. 

At  the  memorial  service  held  in  his  honor  a  few  weeks 
after  his  death  (February  5,  1899),  the  prayers  were  offered 
by  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Stewart  and  the  Rev.  Donald  Guthrie ;  the 
Old  Testament  lesson  was  read  by  Rabbi  Calisch,  and  the 
New  Testament  lesson  by  the  Rev.  Paul  Menzel,  of  the 
Lutheran  Church.  The  speakers  were  introduced  by  Gover- 
nor J.  Hoge  Tyler,  and  addresses  were  made  by  Dr.  Tudor, 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church ;  Dr.  W.  W.  Moore,  on 
behalf  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church ;  Bishop  Penick, 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church ;  the  Rev.  Mr.  Garrison, 
of  the  Disciples'  Church ;  Dr.  Hatcher,  of  the  Baptist  Church, 
and  Dr.  Kerr  on  behalf  of  the  Presbyterian  Ministers'  Asso- 
ciation.   The  anthem  was — 

"  Now  the  laborer's  task  is  done," 
and  the  hymns — 

"  Who,  O  Lord,  when  life  is  o'er," 

"  For  all  the  saints,  who  from  their  labors  rest," 

"  Give  me  the  wings  of  faith  to  rise," 

and — 

"  Jerusalem  the  golden." 

The  benediction  was  pronounced  by  Dr.  James  P.  Smith. 


Character  and  Work.  417 

With  the  masterly  address  of  Dr.  Moore  we  close ;  with 
only  this  prayer :  that  if  those  of  us  who  survive  cannot  be 
as  great,  we  may  be  as  faithful ;  and  if  our  light  shine  not 
so  far,  it  may  at  least  shine  as  true. 

Address  of  Rev.  Dr.  W.  W.  Moore. 
Few  men  in  any  walk  of  life  have  ever  so  deeply  impressed 
an  entire  community  with  the  power  of  a  noble  personality  as 
the  lamented  servant  of  God  whose  virtues  and  labors  we 
commemorate  to-day.  Certainly  no  minister  of  the  gospel 
in  all  the  history  of  this  ancient  commonwealth  was  ever 
accorded  a  position  so  eminent  by  the  public  at  large.  This 
popular  estimate  was  deliberate  and  exact.  The  people 
knew  him.  For  more  than  fifty  years,  through  storm  and 
sunshine,  in  war  and  peace,  they  had  studied  his  character 
and  watched  his  work,  and  they  have  rendered  their  verdict : 
that  Moses  D.  Hoge  was  a  man;  a  strong,  wise,  high- 
minded,  great-hearted,  heroic  man;  that  through  all  these 
years  of  stress  and  toil  and  publicity  he  wore  the  white 
flower  of  a  blameless  life;  and  that  he  preached  the  gospel  of 
the  grace  of  God  with  a  dignity  and  authority  and  tender- 
ness, with  a  beauty  and  pathos  and  power  which  have  rarely, 
if  ever,  been  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  the  American 
pulpit. 

Long  before  the  close  of  his  consecrated  career  he  had 
taken  his  place  in  public  interest  even  by  the  side  of  those 
stately  memorials  of  this  historic  city  which  men  have  come 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  see— the  bronze  and  marble 
reminders  of  the  men  who  have  forever  associated  the  name 
of  Virginia  with  eloquence  and  virtue  and  valor.  No  visitor 
who  had  come  from  a  distant  State  or  a  land  beyond  the 
seas,  to  look  upon  these  memorials  of  the  great  Virginians 
of  former  days,  felt  that  his  visit  to  Richmond  was  complete 
till  he  had  seen  and  heard  the  man  who,  though  an  humble 
minister  of  the  Cross,  was  by  common  consent  the  most 
eminent  living  citizen  of  a  commonwealth  which  has  always 


4i8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

been  peculiarly  rich  in  gifted  sons.  It  was  his  privilege  to 
preach  to  a  larger  number  of  the  men  whose  commanding  in- 
fluence in  public  life,  in  the  learned  professions,  or  in  the 
business  world,  had  conferred  prosperity  and  honor  upon  the 
State,  than  any  other  spiritual  teacher  of  the  time.  He  was 
more  frequently  the  spokesman  of  the  people  on  great  public 
occasions  than  any  other  man  whom  Richmond  has  delighted 
to  honor.  He  was  more  frequently  the  subject  of  conversa- 
tion in  the  social  circle  than  any  other  member  of  this 
cosmopolitan  community.  In  every  community  where  he 
once  appeared  his  name  was  thenceforth  a  household  word. 
It  is  not  my  province  at  present  to  speak  of  these  things.  I 
allude  to  them  only  in  order  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the 
explanation  of  this  preeminence  in  public  esteem  lay  largely 
in  the  character  of  his  work  in  the  pulpit.  That  was  his 
throne.     There  he  was  king. 

In  attempting  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  session  of 
his  church  to  say  something  to-day  in  regard  to  this  out- 
standing feature  of  Dr.  Hoge's  work,  a  feeling  of  peculiar 
sadness  comes  over  my  heart.  It  will  be  many  a  long  day 
before  any  man  who  knew  him  can  stand  in  this  pulpit 
without  a  sense  of  wistful  loneliness  at  thought  of  that 
venerated  figure,  with  its  resolute  attitudes  and  ringing 
tones,  which  for  fifty-four  fruitful  years  stood  in  this  place 
as  God's  ambassador,  laying  the  multitude  under  the  en- 
chantment of  his  eloquence,  diffusing  through  this  sanctu- 
ary the  aroma  of  his  piety,  and  lifting  sad  and  weary  hearts 
to  heaven  on  the  wings  of  his  wonderful  prayers.  As  some 
one  has  said  of  the  death  of  another  illustrious  preacher,  we 
feel  like  children  who  had  long  sheltered  under  a  mighty 
oak ;  and  now  the  old  oak  has  gone  down  and  we  are  out  in 
the  open  sun.  We  hardly  knew,  till  he  fell,  how  much  we 
had  sheltered  under  him.  His  presence  was  a  protection. 
His  voice  was  a  power.  His  long-established  leadership  was 
a  rallying  centre  for  the  disheartened  soldiers  of  the 
cross. 


Character  and  Work.  419 

^  We  do  not  murmur  at  the  dispensation  which  has  taken 
.him  from  us — 

"But  oh  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." 

There  were  certain  physical  features  of  his  preaching 
which  are  perfectly  famihar  to  all  who  have  heard  him  even 
once,  and  which  will  be  remembered  by  them  forever,  but 
Avhich  cannot  be  made  known  by  description  to  those  who 
have  not.  When  he  rose  in  the  pulpit,  tall,  straight,  slender, 
sinewy,  commanding,  with  something  vital  and  electric  in 
his  very  movements,  yet  singularly  deliberate,  and,  lifting 
his  chin  from  his  collar  with  a  peculiar  movement,  surveyed 
the  people  before  him  and  on  either  side,  with  his  grave,  in- 
tellectual face  and  almost  melancholy  eyes,  no  one  needed  to 
be  told  that  there  stood  a  master  of  assemblies.  The  atten- 
tion was  riveted  by  his  appearance  and  manner  before  he  had 
tittered  a  word. 

As  soon  as  he  began  to  speak,  the  clear,  rich  and  resonant 
tones,  reaching  without  effort  to  the  limits  of  the  largest 
assembly,  revealed  to  every  hearer  another  element  of  his 
power  to  move  and  mould  the  hearts  of  men.  To  few  of  the 
world's  masters  of  discourse  has  it  been  given  to  demonstrate 
as  he  did  the  music  and  spell  of  the  human  voice.  It  was  a 
voice  in  a  million— flexible,  magnetic,  thrilling,  clear  as  a 
clarion,  by  turns  tranquil  and  soothing,  strenuous  and  stir- 
rmg,  as  the  speaker  willed,  now  mellow  as  a  cathedral  bell 
heard  in  the  twilight,  now  ringing  like  a  trumpet  or  rolling 
through  the  building  like  melodious  thunder,  with  an  occa- 
sional impassioned  crash  like  artillery,  accompanied  by  a 
resounding  stamp  of  his  foot  on  the  floor;  but  never  un- 
pleasant or  uncontrolled  or  overstrained ;  no  one  ever  heard 
him  scream  or  tear  his  throat.  Some  of  his  cadences  in  the 
utterance  of  particular  words  or  sentiments  lingered  on  the 
ear  and  haunted  the  memory  for  years  like  a  strain  of  ex- 
<iuisite  music.  As  you  listened  to  his  voice  in  prayer,  "there 
ran  through  its  pathetic  fall  a  vibration  as  though  the  min- 


420  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

ister's  heart  was  singing  like  an  ^olian  harp  as  the  breath 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  blew  through  its  strings."  It  was  a 
voice  that  adapted  itself  with  equal  felicity  to  all  occasions. 
When  he  preached  to  the  whole  of  General  D.  H.  Hill's 
division  in  the  open  air,  it  rang  like  a  bugle  to  the  outermost 
verge  of  his  vast  congregation.  When  he  stood  on  the  slope 
of  Mt.  Ebal  in  Palestine  and  recited  the  twenty-third  Psalm, 
it  was  heard  distinctly  by  the  English  clergyman  on  the  other 
side  of  the  valley,  three-quarters  of  a  mile  away.  When  the 
body  of  an  eminent  statesman  and  ruling  elder  in  his  church 
was  borne  into  this  building  and  laid  before  the  pulpit,  and 
the  preacher  rose  and  said,  "Mark  the  perfect  man  and  be- 
hold the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace,"  the  sym- 
pathetic intonations  fell  like  healing  balm  on  wounded 
hearts.  When  he  stood  in  the  Senate  Chamber  at  Washing- 
ton beside  the  mortal  remains  of  the  Carolinian,  and  said  to 
the  assembled  representatives  of  the  greatness  of  this  nation 
and  of  the  world,  "There  is  nothing  great  but  God;"  the 
voice  and  the  words  alike  impressed  the  insignificance  of  all 
human  concerns  as  compared  with  religion.  When  he  stood 
in  the  chancel  of  St.  Paul's  and  stretched  his  hand  over  the 
casket  containing  the  pallid  form  of  "the  daughter  of  the 
Confederacy,"  and  said,  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for 
they  shall  see  God,"  it  had  the  authority  and  tenderness  of  a 
prophet's  benediction. 

Of  the  intellectual  qualities  of  his  preaching,  the  first  that 
impressed  the  hearer  was  the  exquisite  phrasing.  He  was  a 
marvellous  magician  with  words.  He  was  the  prince  of 
pulpit  rhetoricians.  He  had  made  himself  a  master  of  the 
art  of  verbal  expression,  because,  to  use  his  own  words,  he 
knew  that  "style  was  the  crystallization  of  thought,"  and  he 
believed  that  "royal  thoughts  ought  to  wear  royal  robes." 
The  splendid  powers  with  which  he  was  endowed  by  nature 
had  been  at  once  enriched  and  chastened  by  the  strenuous 
study  of  the  world's  best  books.  Every  cultivated  person 
recognized  the  flavor  of  ripe  scholarship  in  his  diction  and 


Character  and  Work.  421 

even  those  devoid  of  culture  felt  its  charm  without  being 
able  to  define  it.  The  mellow  splendor  of  his  rhetoric  capti- 
vated all  classes  of  hearers.  This  rare  beauty  of  his  lan- 
guage, this  exquisite  drapery  of  his  thoughts,  sometimes 
tempted  superficial  hearers  to  regard  him  as  merely  a  skilful 
phrase-maker.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth. 
He  was  a  superb  rhetorician  because  he  was  a  true  scholar 
and  a  profound  theologian.  His  rhetoric  drew  deep.  The 
ocean  greyhound,  which  seems  to  skim  the  billows,  does  in 
fact  plow  deep  beneath  their  surface,  and  hence  the  safety  of 
her  cargo  of  human  lives  and  precious  wares.  This  master- 
ful preacher  ivas  easy  and  swift — he  distanced  all  his 
"brethren — but  he  was  always  safe,  and  his  ministry  had  the 
momentum  which  only  weight  can  give.  All  his  life  long 
he  was  a  student — a  student  of  books,  a  student  of  men,  a 
student  of  the  deep  things  of  God.  When  men  beheld  the 
external  splendor  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  with  its  walls 
and  roofs  of  white  marble,  surmounted  with  plates  and  spikes 
of  glittering  gold,  they  sometimes  forgot  the  immense  sub- 
structions built  deep  into  the  ground  and  resting  upon  the 
everlasting  rock ;  but  without  that  cyclopean  masonry  hid- 
den from  view,  those  snowy  walls  of  marble  and  those  sky- 
piercing  pinnacles  of  gold  could  not  have  been.  Dr.  Hoge's 
surpassing  beauty  of  statement  was  bottomed  on  eternal 
truth. 

He  was,  therefore,  not  only  an  orator,  but  a  teacher.  His 
sermons  were  not  only  brilliant  in  form,  but  rich  in  truth. 
So  that  not  only  in  point  of  finish,  but  also  in  point  of  force 
lie  ranks  with  the  masters  of  the  contemporary  pulpit.  It  is 
true  that  many  of  his  later  discourses  were  somewhat  dis- 
cursive in  treatment,  necessarily  so  because  of  the  innumer- 
able demands  upon  his  time,  but  he  never  failed  to  bring 
■beaten  oil  to  the  sanctuary  when  it  was  possible,  and  he  never 
for  a  moment  relinquished  or  lowered  his  conception  of  the 
teaching  function  of  the  ministry.  His  people  were  not  only 
interested  and  entertained,  but  they  were  fed  and  nourished 


422  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

with  truth.  The  lecture  which  he  deHvered  at  the  University 
of  Virginia  forty-nine  years  ago  on  "The  Success  of  Chris- 
tianity, an  Evidence  of  its  Divine  Origin,"  and  known  to 
some  of  you  from  its  pubHcation  in  the  portly  volume  entitled 
Evidences  of  Christianity,  is  a  noble  specimen  of  the  kind  of 
work  he  was  capable  of  when  he  was  at  his  best.  I  venture 
the  assertion,  though  it  seems  a  sweeping  one,  that  in  the 
whole  realm  of  apologetic  literature  there  is  not  a  more 
polished  or  more  powerful  demonstration  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity.  I  have  often  wished  that  it  might  be  published 
separately  and  thus  given  a  wider  circulation. 

His  substantial  attainments,  then,  were  no  less  remarkable 
than  his  graces  of  speech ;  but  here  we  have  sighted  a  subject 
too  large  for  the  limits  of  this  address.  To  use  Dr.  Breed's 
figure,  a  small  island  can  be  explored  in  a  few  hours,  but  not 
a  wide  continent.  The  one  may  be  characterized  in  a  word, 
but  not  the  other.  This  island  is  a  bank  of  sand,  that  one  a 
smiling  pasture,  a  third  a  mass  of  cliffs,  a  fourth  a  mountain 
peak:  but  the  continent  is  a  vast  combination  of  all  these 
features,  indefinitely  multiplied.  So  the  gifts  of  some  men 
are  insular  and  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words,  but  the 
gifts  of  the  man  in  whose  memory  we  are  assembled  to-day 
were  continental.  Every  one  that  had  heard  him  even  once 
saw  that  there  were  here  peaceful  valleys  where  the  grass 
grew  green,  and  the  sweet  flowers  bloomed,  and  streams  ran 
rippling;  but  those  who  sailed  farther  along  shore  found 
that  there  were  also  mighty  cliffs  where  his  convictions 
defied  the  waves  of  passing  opinion ;  and  when  they  pushed 
their  explorations  into  the  interior,  they  came  upon  great 
uplands  of  philosophy,  where  the  granite  of  a  strong  the- 
ology protruded,  and  where  the  snows  of  doctrine  lay  deep ; 
but  the  thoughtful  explorer  knew  well  that  the  granite  was 
essential  to  the  solidity  of  those  towering  heights  and  that 
without  those  snows  upon  the  peaks  there  would  have  been 
no  streams  in  the  valleys,  no  broad  reaches  of  meadow,  no 
blooming  flowers.    He  was  indeed  a  superb  rhetorician,  with 


Character  and  Work.  423 

a  marvellous  wealth  of  diction,  a  phenomenal  power  of  de- 
scription, and  a  rare  felicity  of  illustration;  but  rhetoric  in 
the  pulpit  has  no  abiding  charm  apart  from  truth.  Strong- 
men and  thoughtful  women  do  not  sit  for  fifty- four  years  in 
ever-increasing  numbers  under  a  ministry  which  has  not  in 
it  the  strength  of  Divine  truth,  deeply  studied,  sincerely  be- 
lieved, and  earnestly  proclaimed. 

We  have  now  seen  something  of  what  he  was  in  his 
preaching  as  a  man,  and  somethinp-  of  what  he  was  as  a 
scholar,  but  after  all  the  hiding  of  his  power  lay  in  what  he 
was  as  a  saint.  Nature  had  done  much  for  him.  Cultivation 
had  done  much;  but  grace  had  done  most  of  all.  He 
preached  from  a  true  and  profound  experience  of  the  mercy 
and  power  of  God.  He  knew  the  deadly  evil  of  sin.  He 
knew  the  saving  grace  of  Christ.  He  knew  the  brooding 
sorrows  of  the  human  heart.  He  knew  the  comfort  of  com- 
munion with  God.  He  knew  that  the  gospel  was  God's 
supreme  answer  to  man's  supreme  need ;  and  the  crowning 
glory  of  this  pulpit  is  that,  from  the  first  day  of  its  occu- 
pancy to  the  last,  it  rang  true  to  that  evangel :  "Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  There 
was  never  a  day  in  all  these  fifty-four  years  when  men  could 
not  have  pointed  to  him  as  to  the  original  of  Cowper's  im- 
mortal portrait — 

"There  stands  the  messenger  of  truth:  there  stands 
The  legate  of  the  skies ! — his  theme  divine, 
His  office  sacred,  his  credentials  clear. 
By  him  the  violated  law  speaks  out 
Its  thunders;  and  by  him,  in  strains  as  sv^eet 
As  angels  use,  the  gospel  whispers  peace. 
He  stablishes  the  strong,  restores  the  weak, 
Reclaims  the  wanderer,  binds  the  broken  heart. 
And,  arm'd  himself  in  panoply  complete 
Of  heavenly  temper,  furnishes  with  arms 
Bright  as  his  own,  and  trains,  by  every  rule 
Of  holy  discipline,  to  glorious  war, 
The  sacramental  host  of  God's  elect !  " 


APPENDIX. 


I. 

ORATION 


At  the   Unveiling  of  the  Statue  of  Stonewall  Jackson,   in  the 
Capitol  Square,  Richnofid,  Va.,  October  26,  1876. 

Were  I  permitted  at  this  moment  to  consult  my  own  wishes, 
I  would  bid  the  thunder  of  the  cannon  and  the  acclamations  of 
the  people  announce  the  unveiling  of  the  statue ;  and  then, 
when  with  hearts  beating  with  commingled  emotions  of  love 
and  grief  and  admiration,  we  had  contemplated  this  last  and 
noblest  creation  of  the  great  sculptor,  the  ceremonies  of  this 
august  hour  should  end. 

In  attempting  to  commence  my  oration,  I  am  forcibly  re- 
minded of  the  faltering  words  with  which  Bossuet  began  his 
splendid  eulogy  on  the  Prince  of  Conde.  Said  he:  "At  the 
moment  I  open  my  lips  to  celebrate  the  immortal  glory  of  the 
Prince  of  Conde  I  find  myself  equally  overwhelmed  by  the 
greatness  of  the  theme  and  the  needlessness  of  the  task.  What 
part  of  the  habitable  world  has  not  heard  of  his  victories  and 
the  wonders  of  his  life  ?  Everywhere  they  are  rehearsed.  His 
own  countrymen  in  extolling  them  can  give  no  information 
even  to  the  stranger.  And  although  I  may  remind  you  of 
them,  yet  everything  I  could  say  would  be  anticipated  by  your 
thoughts,  and  I  should  suffer  the  reproach  of  falling  far  below 
them." 

How  true  is  all  this  to-day!  Not  only  is  every  important 
event  in  the  life  of  our  illustrious  chieftain  familiar  to  you  all, 
but  what  lesson  to  be  derived  from  his  example  has  not  already 
been  impressively  enforced  by  those  whose  genius,  patriotism 
and  piety  have  qualified  them  to  speak  in  terms  worthy  of 
their  noble  theme?  And  now  that  the  statesman  and  soldier, 
who  w^ell  represents  the  honor  of  Virginia  as  its  chief  magis- 
trate, has  given  his  warm  and  earnest  welcome  to  our  distin- 


426  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

guished  guests  from  other  States  and  from  other  lands  who 
grace  this  occasion  by  their  presence,  I  would  not  venture  to 
proceed,  had  not  the  Commonwealth  laid  on  me  its  command 
to  utter  some  words  of  greeting  to  my  fellow-countrymen,  who 
this  day  do  honor  to  themselves  in  rendering  homage  to  the 
memory  of  Virginia's  illustrious  son. 

I  cannot  repress  an  emotion  of  awe  as  I  vainly  attempt  to 
overlook  the  mighty  throng,  extending  as  it  does  beyond  the 
limits  of  these  Capitol  grounds,  and  covering  spaces  which 
cannot  even  be  reached  by  the  eye  of  the  speaker.  More  impres- 
sive is  this  assemblage  of  citizens  and  representatives  from  all 
parts  of  our  own  and  of  foreign  lands,  than  ever  gathered  on 
the  banks  of  the  ancient  Alpheus  at  one  of  the  solemnities 
which  united  the  men  of  all  the  Grecian  States  and  attracted 
strangers  from  the  most  distant  countries.  There  was  indeed 
one  pleasing  feature  in  the  old  Hellenic  festivals.  The  entire 
territory  around  Olympia  was  consecrated  to  peace  during  their 
celebration,  and  there  even  enemies  might  meet  as  friends  and 
brothers,  and  in  harmony  rejoice  in  their  ancestral  glories  and 
national  renown.  It  is  so  with  us  to-day.  But  how  deficient 
in  moral  interest  was  the  old  Olympiad,  and  how  wanting  in 
one  feature  which  gives  grace  to  our  solemnity.  No  citizen,  no 
stranger,  however  honored,  was  permitted  to  bring  with  him 
either  mother,  wife,  or  daughter ;  but  here  to-day  how  many  of 
the  noble  women  of  the  land,  of  whom  the  fabled  Alcestis, 
Antigone,  and  Iphigenia  were  but  the  imperfect  types,  lend  the 
charm  of  their  presence  to  the  scene — Christian  women  of  a 
nobler  civilization  than  Pagan  antiquity  ever  knew. 

We  have  come  from  the  seashore,  the  mountains  and  the 
valleys  of  our  South-land,  not  only  to  inaugurate  a  statue,  but 
a  new  era  in  our  history.  Here  on  this  Capitoline  Hill,  on  this 
26th  day  of  October,  1875,  and  in  the  one  hundredth  year  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  in  sight  of  that  historic  river 
that  more  than  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago  bore  on  its  bosom 
the  bark  freighted  with  the  civilization  of  the  North  American 
Continent,  on  whose  banks  Powhatan  wielded  his  sceptre  and 
Pocahontas  launched  her  skiff,  under  the  shadow  of  that  Capi- 
tol whose  foundations  were  laid  before  the  present  Federal 
Constitution  was  framedj  and  from  which  the  edicts  of  Virginia 
went  forth  over  her  realm  that  stretched  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Mississippi — edicts  framed  by  some  of  the  patriots  whose 
manly  forms  on  yonder  monument  still  gather  around  him 
whose  name  is  the  purest  in  human  history — we  have  met  to- 


Appendix.  427 

inaugurate  a  new  Pantheon  to  the  glory  of  our  common 
mother. 

In  the  story  of  the  empires  of  the  earth  some  crisis  often 
occurs  which  develops  the  genius  of  the  era,  and  impresses  an 
imperishable  stamp  on  the  character  of  a  whole  people. 

Such  a  crisis  was  the  Revolution  of  1776,  when  thirteen 
thinly-settled  and  widely-separated  colonies  dared  to  ofifer  the 
gage  of  battle  to  the  greatest  military  and  naval  power  on  the 
globe. 

The  story  of  that  struggle  is  the  most  familiar  in  American 
annals.  After  innumerable  reverses,  and  incredible  sufferings 
and  sacrifices,  our  fathers  came  forth  froni  the  ordeal  victori- 
ous. And  though  during  the  progress  of  the  strife,  before  calm' 
reflection  had  quieted  the  violence  of  inflamed  passion,  they 
were  branded  by  opprobrious  names  and  their  revolt  denounced 
as  rebellion  and  treason,  the  justice  of  their  cause,  and  the 
wisdom,  the  valor  and  the  determination  with  which  they  vin- 
dicated it,  were  quickly  recognized  and  generously  acknow- 
ledged by  the  bravest  and  purest  of  British  soldiers  and  states- 
men ;  so  that  now,  when  we  seek  the  noblest  eulogies  of  the 
founders  of  American  republicanism,  we  find  them  in  the  writ- 
ings of  the  essayists  and  historians  of  the  mother-country.  We 
honor  ourselves  and  do  homage  to  virtue,  when  we  hallow  the 
names  of  those  who  in  the  council  and  in  the  field  achieved  such 
victories.  We  bequeath  an  influence  which  will  bless  coming 
generations,  when  with  the  brush  and  the  chisel  we  perpetuate 
the  images  of  our  fathers  and  the  founders  of  the  State. 
Already  has  the  noble  office  been  begun.  Here  on  this  hill 
the  forms  of  Washington,  and  Henry,  and  Lewis,  and  Mason, 
and  Nelson,  and  Jefferson,  and  Marshall,  arrest  our  eyes  and 
make  their  silent  but  salutary  and  stirring  appeals  to  our 
hearts.  Nor  are  these  all  who  merit  eternal  commemoration. 
As  I  look  on  that  monument,  I  miss  James  Madison  and  others 
of  venerable  and  illustrious  name.  Let  us  not  cease  our  patri- 
otic work  until  we  have  reared  a  Pantheon  worthy  of  the  undy- 
ing glory  of  the  past. 

But  this  day  we  inaugurate  a  new  era.  We  lay  the  corner- 
stone of  a  new  Pantheon  in  commemoration  of  our  country's 
fame.  We  come  to  honor  the  memory  of  one  who  was  the 
impersonation  of  our  Confederate  cause,  and  whose  genius 
illuminated  the  great  contest  which  has  recently  ended,  and 
which  made  an  epoch  not  only  in  our  own  history,  but  in  that 
of  the  as:e. 


428  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

We  assert  no  monopoly  in  the  glory  of  that  leader.  It  was 
his  happy  lot  to  command,  even  while  he  lived,  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  right-minded  and  right-hearted  men  in  every 
part  of  this  land,  and  in  all  lands.  It  is  now  his  rare  distinction 
to  receive  the  homage  of  those  who  most  dififered  with  him  on 
the  questions  which  lately  rent  this  republic  in  twain  from  ocean 
to  ocean.  From  the  North  and  from  the  South,  from  the  East 
and  from  the  West,  men  have  gathered  on  these  grounds  to-day, 
widely  divergent  in  their  views  on  social,  political  and  religious 
topics ;  and  yet  they  find  in  the  attraction  which  concentrates 
their  regard  upon  one  name,  a  place  where  their  hearts  unex- 
pectedly touch  each  other  and  beat  in  strange  unison. 

It  was  this  attractive  moral  excellence  which,  winning  the 
love  and  admiration  of  the  brave  and  pure  on  the  other  side 
of  the  sea,  prompted  them  to  enlist  the  genius  of  one  of  the 
greatest  of  modern  sculptors  in  fashioning  the  statue  we  have 
met  to  inaugurate  this  day. 

It  is  a  singular  and  striking  illustration  of  the  world-wide 
appreciation  of  his  character  that  the  first  statue  of  Jackson 
comes  from  abroad,  and  that  while  the  monument  to  our  own 
Washington,  and  the  effigies  of  those  who  surround  him,  were 
erected  by  order  of  the  Commonwealth,  this  memorial  is  the 
tribute  of  the  admiration  and  love  of  those  who  never  saw  his 
face,  and  who  were  bound  to  him  by  no  ties  save  those  which  a 
common  sympathy  for  exalted  worth  establishes  between  the 
souls  of  magnanimous  and  heroic  men.  We  accept  this  noble 
gift  all  the  more  gratefully  because  it  comes  from  men  of 
T<indred  race  and  kindred  heart,  as  the  expression  of  their 
good-will  and  sympathy  for  our  people  as  well  as  of  their  admi- 
ration for  the  genius  and  character  of  our  illustrious  hero. 

We  accept  it  as  the  visible  symbol  of  the  ancient  friendship 
which  existed  in  colonial  times  between  Virginia  and  the 
mother-country.  We  accept  it  as  a  prophecy  of  the  incoming 
of  British  settlers  to  our  sparsely-populated  territory,  and  hail 
it  as  a  pleasing  omen  for  the  future  that  the  rebuilding  of  our 
shattered  fortunes  should  be  aided  by  the  descendants  of  the 
men  who  laid  the  foundations  of  this  Commonwealth.  We 
accept  it  as  a  pledge  of  the  peaceful  relations  which  we  trust 
will  ever  exist  between  Great  Britain  and  the  confederated 
empire  formed  by  the  United  States  of  America. 

In  the  first  memorial  discourse  that  was  delivered  after  his 
lamented  death,  the  question  was  asked,  "How  did  it  happen 
that  a  man  who  so  recently  was  known  to  but  a  small  circle. 


Appendix.  429 

and  to  them  only  as  a  laborious,  punctilious,  humble-minded 
Professor  in  a  Military  Institute,  in  so  brief  a  space  of  time 
gathered  around  his  name  so  much  of  the  glory  which  encircles 
the  name  of  Napoleon,  and  so  much  of  the  love  that  enshrines 
the  memory  of  Washington?"  And  soon  after,  in  the  memoir 
which  will  go  down  to  coming  generations  as  the  most  faithful 
portraiture  of  its  subject  and  an  enduring  monument  of  the 
genius  of  its  author,  the  inquiry  was  resumed,  "How  is  it  tliat 
this  man,  of  all  others  least  accustomed  to  exercise  his  own 
fancy  or  address  that  of  others,  has  stimulated  the  imagination 
not  only  of  his  own  countrymen,  but  that  of  the  civilized  world  ? 
How  has  he,  the  most  unromantic  of  great  men,  become  the 
hero  of  a  living  romance,  the  ideal  of  an  inflamed  fancy,  even 
before  his  life  has  been  invested  with  the  mystery  of  distance?" 
From  that  day  to  this  these  inquiries  have  been  propounded  in 
every  variety  of  form,  and  with  an  ever-increasing  interest. 

To  answer  these  questions  will  be  one  object  of  this  dis- 
course ;  and  yet  the  public  will  not  expect  me,  in  so  doing,  to 
furnish  a  new  delineation  of  the  life  of  Jackson,  or  a  rehearsal 
of  the  story  of  his  campaigns.  Time  does  not  permit  this, 
neither  does  the  occasion  demand  it.  By  a  brief  series  of  ascend- 
ing propositions  do  I  seek  to  furnish  the  solution.  I  find  an 
explanation  of  the  regard  in  which  the  memory  of  Jackson  is 
cherished — 

1st.  In  the  fact  that  he  was  the  incarnation  of  those  heroic 
qualities  which  fit  their  possessor  to  lead  and  command  men, 
and  which,  therefore,  always  attract  the  admiration,  kindle  the 
imagination  and  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  the  people. 

There  is  a  natural  element  in  humanity  which  constrains  it  to 
honor  that  which  is  strong,  and  adventurous  and  indomitable. 
Decision,  fortitude,  inflexibility,  intrepidity,  determination, 
when  consecrated  to  noble  ends,  and  especially  when  associated' 
with  a  gentleness  which  throws  a  softened  charm  over  these 
sterner  attributes,  ever  win  and  lead  captive  the  popular  heart. 

The  masses  who  compose  the  commonalty,  consciously  weak 
and  irresolute,  instinctively  gather  around  the  men  of  loftier 
stature  in  whom  they  find  the  great  forces  wanting  in  them- 
selves, and  spontaneously  follow  the  call  of  those  whom  they 
think  competent  to  redress  their  wrongs  and  vindicate  their 
rights. 

These  are  the  leaders  who  are  welcomed  by  the  people  with 
open  arms,  and  elevated  to  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  to 
become  the  regents  of  society^to  develop  the  history  of  the 


430  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

age  in  which  they  live,  and  to  impress  upon  it  the  noble  image 
of  their  own  personality. 

As  discoverers  love  to  trace  great  rivers  to  their  sources,  so 
in  our  studies  of  the  characters  of  those  who  have  filled  large 
spaces  in  the  public  eye,  it  interests  us  to  go  backward  in  search 
of  the  rudimentary  germs  which  afterwards  developed  into  the 
great  qualities  which  commanded  the  admiration  of  the  world. 

Never  was  the  adage,  "the  child  is  the  father  of  the  man," 
■more  strikingly  illustrated  than  in  the  early  history  of  the 
orphan  boy  whose  name  subsequently  became  a  tower  of 
strength  to  the  armies  he  commanded,  and  to  the  eleven  sover- 
eign States  banded  and  battling  together  for  a  separate  national 
life. 

There  is  no  more  graphic  picture  in  the  pages  of  Macaulay 
than  that  of  Warren  Hastings,  at  the  age  of  seven  lying  on  the 
bank  of  a  rivulet  which  flowed  through  the  broad  lands  which 
were  once  the  property  of  his  ancestors,  and  there  forming  the 
resolve  that  all  that  domain  should  one  day  be  his,  and  never 
abandoning  his  purpose  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  his 
stormy  life,  until,  as  the  "Hastings  of  Daylesford,"  he  tasted 
a  joy  which  his  heart  never  knew  in  the  command  of  the  mil- 
lions over  whom  he  ruled  in  the  Indian  empire. 

But  stranger  still  was  it  to  see  a  pensive,  delicate  orphan- 
child  of  the  same  age,  the  inheritor  of  a  feeble  constitution, 
yet  with  a  will  even  more  indomitable  than  that  of  Warren 
Hastings,  renouncing  his  home  with  a  relative,  who,  mistaking 
his  disposition,  had  attempted  to  govern  him  by  force,  and  alone 
and  on  foot  performing  a  journey  of  eighteen  miles  to  the  house 
of  another  kinsman,  where  he  suddenly  presented  himself,  an- 
nouncing his  unaltera1)le  resolve  never  to  return  to  his  former 
home — a  decision  which  no  remonstrances  or  persuasions  could 
induce  him  to  revoke;  and  stranger  still  to  see  him,  the  year 
after,  on  a  lonely  island  of  the  Mississippi  river,  in  company 
with  another  child  a  few  years  his  senior,  maintaining  himself 
by  his  own  labor,  until  driven  by  malaria  from  the  desolate  spot 
where,  beneath  the  dreary  forests  and  beside  the  angry  floods 
of  the  father  of  waters,  he  had  displayed  the  self-reliance  and 
hardihood  of  a  man,  at  a  period  of  life  when  children  are  ordi- 
narily scarcely  out  of  the  nursery.  This  inflexibility  of  purpose 
and  defiance  of  hardship  and  danger  in  the  determination  to 
succeed  was  displayed  in  all  his  subsequent  career — whether 
we  see  him  at  West  Point,  overcoming  the  disadvantages  of  a 
■deficient  preliminary   education  by  a   severity  of  application 


Appendix.  431 

almost  unparalleled,  in  accordance  with  the  motto  he  inscribed 
in  bold  characters  on  a  page  in  his  common-place  book,  "You 
may  be  whatever  you  resolve  to  be" — or  whether  we  follow 
him  through  the  Mexican  campaign,  winning  his  first  laurels 
at  Cherubusco,  and  at  Chepultepec,  where  he  received  his 
second  promotion — or  whether  we  accompany  him  to  his  quiet 
retreat  in  Lexington,  where,  after  the  termination  of  the  Mexi- 
can war,  he  filled  the  post  of  Professor  in  the  Military  Insti- 
tute, and  there  affording  a  new  exhibition  of  his  determination 
in  overcoming  obstacles  more  formidable  than  those  encoun- 
tered in  the  field,  in  the  persistent  discharge  of  every  duty  in 
spite  of  feeble  health  and  threatened  loss  of  sight. 

I  know  of  no  picture  in  his  life  more  impressive  than  that 
which  presents  him  as  he  sat  in  his  study  during  the  still  hours 
of  the  night,  unable  to  use  book  or  lamp — with  only  a  mental 
view  of  diagrams  and  models,  and  the  artificial  signs  required 
in  abstruse  calculations,  holding  long  and  intricate  processes 
of  mathematical  reasoning  with  the  steady  grasp  of  thought, 
his  face  turned  to  the  blank,  dark  wall,  until  he  mastered  every 
difficulty  and  made  complete  preparations  for  the  instructions 
of  the  succeeding  day. 

These  years  of  self-discipline  and  self-enforced  severity  of 
regimen,  maintained  with  rigid  austerity,  through  years  of 
seclusion  from  public  life,  constituted  the  propitious  season  for 
the  full  maturing  of  those  faculties  whose  energy  was  so  soon 
to  be  displayed  on  a  field  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
world. 

When  his  native  State,  which  had  long  stood  in  the  attitude 
of  magnanimous  mediation  between  the  hostile  sections,  in  the 
"hope  of  preserving  the  Union  which  she  had  assisted  in  form- 
ing, and  to  whose  glory  she  had  made  such  contributions,  was 
menaced  by  the  rod  of  coercion,  and  compelled  to  decide 
between  submission  or  separation,  then  Jackson,  who  would 
have  cheerfully  laid  down  his  life  to  avert  the  disruption,  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  political  school  in  which 
he  had  been  trained,  and  which  commanded  his  conscientious 
assent,  hesitated  no  longer,  but  went  straight  to  his  decision  as 
the  beam  of  light  goes  from  its  God  to  the  object  it  illumines. 
Simultaneously  with  the  striking  of  the  clock  which  announced 
the  hour  of  his  departure  with  his  cadets  for  the  Camp  of 
Instruction  in  this  city,  the  command  to  march  was  given. 
Never  was  there  a  home  dearer  than  his  own ;  but  he  left  it, 
never  again  to  cross  its  threshold.     From  that  time,  as  we  are 


432  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

told,  he  never  asked  nor  received  a  furlough — was  never  absent 
from  duty  for  a  day,  whether  sick  or  well,  and  never  slept  one 
night  outside  the  lines  of  his  own  command.  And  passing  over 
a  thousand  occasions  which  the  war  afforded  for  the  exercise 
of  his  unconquerable  will,  there  is  something  impressive  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  very  last  order  which  ever  fell  from  his  lips,  was 
a  revelation  of  its  unabated  force.  After  he  had  received  his 
fatal  wound,  while  pale  with  anguish,  and  faint  with  loss  of 
blood,  he  was  informed  by  one  of  his  generals  that  the  men 
under  his  command  had  been  thrown  into  such  confusion  that 
he  feared  he  could  not  hold  his  ground,  the  voice  which  was- 
growing  tremulous  and  low,  thrilled  the  heart  of  that  officer 
with  the  old  authoritative  tone,  as  he  uttered  his  final  order, 
"General,  you  must  keep  your  men  together  and  hold  your 
ground." 

These  were  the  elements  which  shaped  Jackson's  distinctive 
characteristics  as  a  soldier  and  commander  which  may  be  most 
concisely  stated;  a  natural  genius  for  the  art  of  war,  without 
which  no  professional  training  will  ever  develop  the  highest 
order  of  military  talent ;  a  power  of  abstraction  and  self-con- 
centration which  enabled  him  to  determine  every  proper  com- 
bination and  disposition  of  his  forces,  without  the  slightest 
mental  confusion — even  in  those  supreme  moments  when  his- 
face  and  form  underwent  a  sort  of  transfiguration  amid  the 
flame  and  thunder  of  battle ;  a  conviction  of  the  moral  superi- 
ority of  aggressive  over  defensive  warfare  in  elevating  the 
courage  of  his  own  men  and  in  depressing  that  of  the  enemy ; 
an  almost  intuitive  insight  into  the  plans  of  the  enemy,  and  an 
immediate  perception  of  the  time  to  strike  the  most  stunning 
blow,  from  the  most  unlooked-for  quarter ;  a  conviction  of  the 
necessity  of  following  every  such  blow  with  another,  and  more 
terrible,  so  as  to  make  every  success  a  victory,  and  every  victory 
so  complete  as  to  compel  the  speedy  termination  of  the  war. 

In  the  county  where  all  that  is  mortal  of  this  great  hero 
sleeps,  there  is  a  natural  bridge  of  rock  whose  massive  arch, 
fashioned  with  grace  by  the  hand  of  God,  springs  lightly  toward 
the  sky,  spanning  a  chasm  into  whose  awful  depth  the  beholder 
looks  down  bewildered  and  awe-struck.  That  bridge  is  among 
the  clififs  what  Niagara  is  among  the  waters — a  visible  expres- 
sion of  sublimity,  a  glimpse  of  God's  great  strength  and 
power. 

But  its  grandeur  is  not  diminished  because  tender  vines 
clamber  over  its  gigantic  piers,  or  because  sweet-scented  flow- 


Appendix.  433 

ers  nestle  in  its  crevices  and  warmly  color  its  cold  gray  columns. 
Nor  is  the  granite  strength  of  our  dead  chieftain's  character 
weakened  because  in  every  throb  of  his  heart  there  was  a  pul- 
sation so  ineffably  and  exquisitely  tender,  as  to  liken  him,  even 
amidst  the  horrors  of  war,  to  the  altar  of  pity  which  ancient 
mythology  reared  among  the  shrines  of  strong  and  avenging 
deities. 

This  admirable  commingling  of  strength  and  tenderness  in 
his  nature  is  touchingly  illustrated  by  a  letter,  now  for  the 
first  time  made  public. 

An  officer  under  his  command  had  obtained  leave  of  absence 
to  visit  a  stricken  household.  A  beloved  member  of  his  family 
had  just  died,  another  was  seriously  ill.  and  he  applied  for  an 
extension  of  his  furlough.    This  is  the  reply : 

"My  Dear  Major:  I  have  received  your  sad  letter,  and  wish  I 
could  relieve  your  sorrowing  heart,  but  human  aid  cannot  heal  the 
wound. 

"  From  me  you  have  a  friend's  sympathy,  and  I  wish  the  suffering 
condition  of  our  country  permitted  me  to  show  it.  But  we  must 
think  of  the  living  and  of  those  who  are  to  come  after  us,  and  see 
that,  with  God's  blessing,  we  transmit  to  them  the  freedom  we  have 
enjoyed.  What  is  life  without  honor?  Degradation  is  worse  than 
death.  It  is  necessary  that  you  should  be  at  your  post  immediately. 
Join  me  to-morrow  morning. 

"  Your  sympathizing  friend,  Thomas  J.  Jackson." 

Not  only  was  he  sensitive  to  every  touch  of  human  sorrow, 
but  no  man  was  ever  more  susceptible  to  impressions  from  the 
physical  world.  The  hum  of  bees,  the  fragrance  of  clover  fields, 
the  tender  streaks  of  dawn,  the  dewy  brightness  of  the  early 
spring,  the  mellow  glories  of  matured  autunm,  all  by  turns 
charmed  and  tranquillized  him.  The  eye  that  so  often  'sent  its 
Hghtning  through  the  smoke  of  battle  grew  soft  in  contemplat- 
ing the  beauty  of  a  flower.  The  ear  that  thrilled  with  the 
thunder  of  the  cannonade,  drank  in  with  innocent  delight  the 
song  of  birds  and  the  prattle  of  children's  voices.  The  hand 
which  guided  the  rush  of  battle  on  the  plains  of  Manassas  and 
the  Malvern  hills,  was  equally  ready  to  adjust  the  covering 
around  the  tender  frame  of  a  motherless  babe,  when  at  midnight 
he  rose  to  see  if  it  was  comfortable  and  warm,  though  its  own 
father  was  a  guest  under  his  roof.  The  voice  whose  sharp  and 
ringing  tones  had  so  often  uttered  the  command,  "Give  them 
the  bayonet!"  culled  even  from  foreign  tongues  terms  of  en- 


434  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

dearment  for  those  he  loved,  which  his  own  language  did  not 
adequately  supply ;  and  the  man  who  filled  two  hemispheres 
with  the  story  of  his  fame  was  never  so  happy  as  when  he  was 
telling  the  colored  children  of  his  Sabbath-school  the  story  of 
the  Cross. 

2.  Another  explanation  of  the  universal  regard  with  which 
his  memory  is  hallowed  conducts  to  a  higher  plane,  and  enables 
us  to  contemplate  a  still  nobler  phase  of  his  character.  His  was 
the  greatness  which  comes  without  being  sought  for  its  own 
sake — ^the  unconscious  greatness  which  results  from  self-sacri- 
fice and  supreme  devotion  to  duty.  Duty  is  an  altar  from  which 
a  vestal  flame  is  ever  ascending  to  the  skies,  and  he  who  stands 
nearest  that  flame  catches  most  of  its  radiance,  and  in  that  light 
is  himself  made  luminous  forever. 

The  day  after  the  first  battle  of  Manassas,  and  before  the 
history  of  that  victory  had  reached  Lexington  in  authentic 
form,  rumor,  preceding  any  accurate  account  of  that  event,  had 
gathered  a  crowd  around  the  post-office  awaiting  with  intensest 
interest  the  opening  of  the  mail.  In  its  distribution  the  first 
letter  was  handed  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White.  It  was  from  General 
Jackson.  Recognizing  at  a  glance  the  well-known  superscrip- 
tion, the  doctor  exclaimed  to  those  around  him,  "Now  we  shall 
know  all  the  facts !" 

This  was  the  bulletin : 

"  My  Dear  Pastor  :  In  my  tent  last  night,  after  a  fatiguing  day's 
service,  I  remembered  that  I  had  failed  to  send  you  my  contribution 
for  our  colored  Sunday-school.  Enclosed  you  will  find  my  check 
for  that  object,  which  please  acknowledge  at  your  earliest  conven- 
ience, and  oblige.  Yours,  faithfully, 

"  Thos.  J.  Jackson." 

Not  a  word  about  a  conflict  which  electrified  a  nation !  Not 
an  allusion  to  the  splendid  part  he  had  taken  in  it ;  not  a  refer- 
ence to  himself  beyond  the  fact  that  it  had  been  a  fatiguing 
day's  service.  And  yet  that  was  the  day  ever  memorable  in  his 
history — memorable  in  all  history — when  he  received  the  name 
which  is  destined  to  supplant  the  name  his  parents  gave  him — 
Stonewall  Jackson.  When  his  brigade  of  twenty-six  hun- 
dred men  had  for  hours  withstood  the  iron  tempest  which  broke 
upon  it  without  causing  a  waver  in  its  line,  and  when,  on  his 
right,  the  forces  under  the  command  of  the  gallant  General 
Bee  had  been  overwhelmed  in  the  rush  of  resistless  numbers, 
then  was  it  that  the  event  occurred  which  cannot  be  more 


Appendix. 


435 


graphically  described  than  in  the  burning-  words  of  his  bio- 
grapher : 

"It  was  then  that  Bee  rode  up  to  Jackson,  and,  with  despair- 
ing bitterness,  exclaimed,  'General,  they  are  beating  us  back.' 
'Then,'  said  Jackson,  calm  and  curt,  'we  will  give  them  the 
bayonet.'  Bee  seemed  to  catch  the  inspiration  of  his  deter- 
mined will,  and,  galloping  back  to  the  broken  fragments  of  his 
overtaxed  command,  exclaimed,  'There  is  Jackson  standing 
like  a  stone  wall.  Rally  behind  the  Virginians !'  At  this  trum"^ 
pet-call  a  few  score  of  his  men  reformed  their  ranks.  Placing 
himself  at  the  head,  he  charged  the  dense  mass  of  the  enemy, 
and  in  a  moment  fell  dead  with  his  face  to. the  foe.  From  that 
time  Jackson's  was  known  as  the  Stonezvall  Brigade— 2i  name 
■henceforth  immortal,  and  belonging  to  all  the  ages;  for  the 
christening  was  baptized  in  the  blood  of  its  author;  and  that 
wall  of  brave  hearts  was  on  every  battlefield  a  steadfast  bul- 
w-ark  of  their  country." 

The  letter  written  to  his  pastor  in  Lexington  on  the  day  fol- 
lowing that  battle  gives  the  key-note  to  his  character.  Nor  on 
any  occasion  was  he  the  herald  of  his  own  fame;  never,  save 
by  the  conscientious  discharge  of  duty,  did  he  aid  in  the  dis- 
semination of  that  fame.  Never  did  he  perform  an  act  for  the 
sake  of  what  men  might  say  of  it;  and  while  he  felt  all  the 
respect  for  public  opinion  to  which  it  is  justly  entitled,  he  was 
not  thinking  of  what  the  public  verdict  might  be,  but  of  what 
It  was  right  to  do.  The  attainment  of  no  personal  ends  could 
satisfy  aspirations  like  his.  To  ascertain  what  was  true,  to  do 
what  was  best,  to  fill  up  the  narrow  measure  of  life  with  the 
largest  possible  usefulness,  was  his  single-hearted  purpose.  In 
such  a  career,  if  enjoyment  should  come,  or  well-earned  fame, 
or  augmented  influence,  or  the  power  which  accompanies  pro- 
motion, they  must  all  come  as  incidents  by  the  way,  as  satellites 
w^hich  gather  around  a  central  orb,  and  not  as  the  consumma- 
tion toward  which  he  ever  tended.  This  singleness  of  aim  was 
mseparable  from  a  soul  so  sincere.  A  nature'like  his  was  incap- 
able of  employing  the  meretricious  aids  by  which  some  men 
seek  to  heighten  or  advance  their  reputation. 

Hence  he  never  affected  mystery.  His  reticence  was  not  the 
assumption  of  impenetrability  of  purpose.  His  reserve  was  not 
the  artifice  of  one  who  seeks  to  awe  by  making  himself  unap- 
proachable. He  hedged  himself  about  with  no  barrier  of  ex- 
clusiveness.  He  assumed  no  airs  of  portentous  dignity.  He 
studied  no  dramatic  effects.     On  the  field,  so  far  from  conde- 


436  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

scending  to  those  histrionic  displays  of  person,  or  theatrical 
arts  of  speech,  by  which  some  commanders  have  sought  to 
excite  the  enthusiasm  of  their  annies,  when  his  troops  caught 
the  sight  of  his  faded  uniform  and  sun-burnt  cap,  and  shook 
the  air  with  their  shouts  as  he  rode  along  the  lines,  he  quick- 
ened his  gallop  and  escaped  from  view.  When  among  the 
mountain  pyramids,  older  than  those  to  which  the  first  Napo- 
leon pointed,  he  did  not  remind  his  men  that  the  centuries  were 
looking  down  on  them.  When  on  the  plain,  he  drilled  no 
eagles  to  perch  on  his  banners,  as  the  third  Napoleon  was  said 
to  have  done.  But  one  thing  he  did,  he  impressed  his  men 
with  such  an  intense  conviction  of  his  unselfish  and  supreme 
consecration  to  the  cause  for  which  he  had  perilled  all,  and  so 
kindled  them  with  his  own  magnetic  fire  as  to  fuse  them  into 
one  articulated  body — one  heart  throbbing  through  all  the  mem- 
bers, one  spirit  animating  the  entire  frame — that  heart,  that 
spirit,  his  own.  It  was  his  sublime  indifference  to  personal 
danger,  to  personal  comfort  and  personal  aggrandizement,  that' 
gave  him  such  power  over  the  armies  he  commanded,  and  such 
a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States. 

The  true  test  of  attachment  to  any  cause  is  what  one  is  will- 
ing to  suffer  for  its  advancement,  and  it  is  the  spectacle  of  dis- 
interested devotion  to  the  right  and  true  at  the  cost  of  toil,  and 
travail,  and  blood,  if  need  be,  that  captivates  the  popular  heart 
and  calls  forth  its  admiration  and  sweetest  aflfection.  He  who 
exhibits  most  of  this  spirit  is  the  man  who  unconsciously  wins 
for  himself  enduring  fame.  When  he  passes  from  earth  to  a 
higher  and  diviner  sphere  his  influence  does  not  perish.  It  is  not 
the  transient  brilliance  of  the  meteor,  but  the  calm  radiance  of 
a  star,  whose  light,  undimmed  and  undiminished,  comes  down 
to  kindle  all  true  and  brave  souls  through  immeasurable  time. 
Exalted  by  the  disinterested  works  he  has  wrought,  by  his 
example  he  elevates  others,  and  thus  becomes  the  trellis,  strong 
and  high,  on  which  other  souls  may  stretch  themselves  in  the 
pursuit  of  whatsoever  is  excellent  in  human  character  and 
achievement. 

Such  a  man  was  Jackson.  Such  is  the  recognition  of  him 
beyond  the  sea,  of  which  this  statue  is  a  token.  Such  is  our 
appreciation  of  his  claim  upon  our  gratitude,  upon  our  undying 
love,  in  testimony  of  which  we  gather  around  this  statue  to-day 
and  crown  it  with  the  laurel,  first  moistened  by  our  tears. 

3.  But  this  universal  sentiment  of  regard  for  his  memory 
rests  upon  foundations  which  lie  still  deeper  in  the  human 


Appendix.  437 

heart.  At  the  mention  of  his  name  another  idea  inseparably 
associated  with  it  invariably  asserts  its  place  in  the  mental  por- 
traiture which  all  men  acquainted  with  his  history  have  formed 
of  him ;  and  so  I  announce  as  the  third  and  last  explanation 
of  the  homage  awarded  him,  the  sincerity,  the  purity,  and 
the  elevation  of  his  character  as  a  servant  of  the  Most  High 
God. 

No  one  acquainted  with  the  moral  history  of  the  world  can 
for  a  moment  doubt  that  religious  veneration  is  at  once  the 
profoundest  and  most  universal  of  human  instincts ;  and  how- 
ever individual  men  may  chafe  at  the  restraints  which  piety 
imposes,  or  be  indifferent  to  its  obligations,  yet  there  is  a  sen- 
timent in  the  popular  heart  which  compels  its  homage  for  those 
whose  character  and  lives  most  faithfully  reflect  the  beauty  of 
the  Divine  Image. 

When  a  man  already  eminent  by  great  virtues  and  services 
attains  great  eminence  in  piety  and  wears  the  coronal  of  heaven 
on  his  brow,  because  the  spirit  of  heaven  has  found  its  home 
in  his  heart,  then  the  world,  involuntarily,  or  with  hearty  readi- 
ness, places  him  on  a  higher  pedestal,  because,  with  their  love 
and  admiration  for  the  attractive  qualities  of  the  man,  there 
is  mingled  a  veneration  for  the  ennobling  graces  of  the  Chris- 
tian. 

I  do  not  agree  with  those  who  ascribe  all  that  was  admirable 
in  the  character  of  Jackson,  and  all  that  was  splendid  in  his  ca- 
reer, to  his  religious  faith.  He  was  distinguished  before  faith 
became  an  element  in  his  life ;  and  even  after  his  faith  attained 
its  fullest  development,  it  did  not  secure  the  triumph  of  the  cause 
to  which  his  life  was  a  sacrifice. 

But  this  I  say,  that  his  piety  heightened  every  virtue,  gave 
direction  and  force  to  every  blow  it  struck  for  that  cause,  and 
then  consecration  to  the  sacrifice  when  he  laid  down  his  life  on 
the  altar  of  his  country's  liberties.  He  was  purer,  stronger, 
more  courageous,  more  efficient,  because  of  his  piety;  purer, 
because  penitence  strains  the  soul  of  the  corruptions  which  de- 
file it;  stronger,  because  faith  nerves  the  arm  that  takes  hold 
on  omnipotence ;  more  courageous,  because  hope  gives  exalta- 
tion to  the  heroism  of  one  who  fights  with  the  crown  of  life  ever 
in  view ;  more  efficient,  because  religion,  which  is  but  another 
name  for  the  right  use  of  one's  own  faculties,  preserves  them 
all  in  harmonious  balance,  develops  all  in  s>nnmetrical  propor- 
tion, and  by  freeing  them  from  the  warping  power  of  prejudice, 
the  blinding  power  of  passion,  and  the  debasing  slavery  of  evil 


438  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

habits,  gives  them  all  wholesome  exercise,  trains  them  all  ta 
keep  step  to  the  music  of  duty,  and  inspires  them  with  an 
energy  which  is  both  intense  and  rightly  directed. 

It  was  thus  that  he  gave  to  the  world  an  illustration  of  the 
power  which  results  from  the  union  of  the  loftiest  human 
attributes  and  unfaltering  faith  in  God. 

To  attempt,  therefore,  to  portray  the  life  of  Jackson  while 
leaving  out  the  religious  element,  would  be  like  undertaking 
"to  describe  Switzerland  without  making  mention  of  the  Alps," 
or  to  explain  the  fertility  of  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  without 
taking  into  account  the  enriching  Nile. 

If  what  comes  from  the  speaker  to-day  on  this  subject  loses- 
aught  of  its  force  because  it  is  regarded  as  professional,  he  will 
deeply  regret  it.  The  same  testimony  might  have  more  weight 
from  the  lips  of  many  a  statesman  or  soldier  on  these  grounds 
to-day,  but  it  would  not  be  a  whit  more  true.  Sturdy  old 
Thomas  Carlyle,  at  all  events,  was  not  speaking  professionally 
when  he  said :  "A  man's  religion  is  the  chief  fact  with  regard  tO' 
him."  "The  thing  a  man  does  practically  lay  to  heart  concern- 
ing his  vital  relation  to  this  mysterious  universe,  and  his  duty 
and  destiny  there,  that  is  in  all  cases  the  primary  thing  for 
him,  and  determines  all  the  rest." 

It  was  surely  the  primary  fact,  the  supreme  fact  in  the  history 
of  General  Jackson,  and  I  cannot  leave  the  subject  without  add- 
ing that  those  who  confound  his  faith  in  Providence  with  fatal- 
ism, mistake  both  the  spiritual  history  of  the  man  and  the  mean- 
ing of  the  very  words  they  employ. 

Those  who  imagine  that  his  faith  savored  of  bigotry  do  not 
know  that  one  characteristic  of  his  religion  was  its  generous- 
catholicity,  as  might  well  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  first 
spiritual  guides  whose  instructions  he  sought  were  members  of 
communions  widely  different  in  doctrine  and  polity ;  that  when 
he  connected  himself  with  the  church  of  his  choice,  it  was  with 
doubts  of  the  truth  of  some  of  its  articles  of  doctrine— doubts 
ultimately  and  utterly  removed,  indeed,  but  openly  avowed' 
while  they  possessed  him;  that  nothing  so  rejoiced  his  heart 
during  the  progress  of  the  war  as  the  harmony  existing  between, 
the  various  denominations  represented  in  the  army;  that  in- 
selecting  his  personal  staff,  and  in  recommending  men  for  pro- 
motion, merit  was  the  sole  ground,  and  their  ecclesiastical  rela- 
tions were  never  even  considered;  that  with  a  charity  which-' 
embraced  all  who  held  the  cardinal  truths  of  revelation,  he 
ardently  desired  such  a  unity  of  feeling  and  concert  of  action/ 


Appendix.  439 

among  all  the  followers  of  the  same  Divine  Leader  as  would 
constitute  one  spiritual  army  glorious  and  invincible. 

It  is  refreshing,  too,  to  note,  that  at  this  day,  when  political 
economists  abandon  the  weaker  races  to  the  law  of  natural 
selection,  and  contemplate  with  complacency  the  process  by 
which  the  dominant  races  extirpate  the  less  capable,  he  sought 
to  place  the  gentle  but  strong  and  sustaining  hand  of  Christi- 
anity beneath  the  African  population  of  the  South,  and  so  arrest 
the  operation  of  that  law  by  developing  them,  if  possible,  into  a 
self-sustaining  people. 

It  is  still  more  refreshing  to  note,  that  at  this  day,  when  scien- 
tific men  assert  such  an  unvarying  uniformity  in  the  operations 
of  the  laws  of  nature  as  to  discredit  prophecy,  and  deny  miracle 
and  silence  prayer,  that  he  whose  studies  had  lain  almost  exclu- 
sively in  the  realm  of  the  exact  sciences  was  a  firm  believer  in 
the  supernatural.  Well  did  this  humble  pupil  in  the  school  of 
the  Great  Teacher — this  diligent  student  in  the  school  of  phy- 
sical science — know  that  true  progress  was  not  mere  advance 
in  inventions  and  in  arts,  or  in  subsidizing  the  forces  of  nature 
to  human  uses,  but  that  true  progress  was  the  progress  of  man 
himself — man,  as  distinct  from  anything  external  to  himself. 
Well  did  he  know  that  there  is  a  celestial  as  well  as  a  terrestrial 
side  to  man's  nature,  and  that  although  the  temple  of  the  body 
has  its  foundation  in  the  dust,  it  is  a  temple  covered  by  a  dome 
which  opens  upward  to  the  air  and  the  sunlight  of  heaven, 
through  which  the  Creator  discloses  himself  as  the  goal  of  the 
soul's  aspirations,  as  the  ultimate  and  imperishable  good  which 
satisfies  its  infinite  desires.  Those  were  true  and  brave  words 
of  the  British  Premier  when  he  said,  "Society  has  a  soul  as  well 
as  a  body ;  the  traditions  of  a  nation  are  a  part  of  its  existence ; 
its  valor  and  its  discipline,  its  religious  faith,  its  venerable  laws, 
its  science  and  its  erudition,  its  poetry,  its  art,  its  eloquence  and 
its  scholarship,  are  as  much  a  portion  of  its  existence  as  its 
agriculture,  its  commerce,  and  its  engineering  skill." 

The  death  of  every  soldier  who  fell  in  our  Confederate  war 
is  a  protest  against  that  base  philosophy  "which  would  make 
physical  good  man's  highest  good,  and  which  would  attempt 
to  rear  a  noble  commonwealth  on  mere  material  foundations." 
Every  soldier  who  offers  his  life  to  his  country  demonstrates 
the  superiority  of  the  moral  to  the  physical,  and  proclaims  that 
truth,  and  right,  and  honor,  and  liberty  are  nobler  than  animal 
existence,  and  worth  the  sacrifice  even  when  blood  is  the  offer- 
ing. 


440  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

And  now  we  recognize  the  Providence  of  God  in  giving  to 
this  faithful  servant  the  illustrious  name  and  fame  as  a  leader 
of  armies,  which  brought  the  very  highest  development  of  his 
character  to  the  notice  of  the  world.  It  was  his  renown  as  a 
soldier  of  the  country  which  made  him  known  to  men  as  a  sol- 
dier of  the  Cross.  And  since  nothing  so  captivates  the  popular 
heart  or  so  kindles  its  enthusiasm  as  military  glory,  Providence 
has  made  even  that  subservient  to  a  higher  purpose.  Men  can- 
not now  think  of  Jackson  without  associating  the  prowess  of 
the  soldier  with  the  piety  of  the  man.  Thus  his  great  military 
renown  is  the  golden  candlestick  holding  high  the  celestial 
light  which  is  seen  from  afar  and  cannot  be  hid. 

Such  was  the  man  who  was  second  in  command  in  our  Con- 
federate armies,  and  whose  success  as  a  leader  during  the 
bright,  brief  career  allotted  to  him  was  second  to  that  of  no  one 
of  his  illustrious  comrades-in-arms. 

And  yet  the  cause  to  which  all  this  valor  was  consecrated, 
and  for  which  all  these  sacrifices  were  made,  was  not  destined  to' 
triumph.  And  here,  perhaps,  we  learn  one  of  the  most  salutary 
lessons  of  this  wonderful  history. 

Doubtless  all  men  who  have  ever  given  their  labors  and  affec- 
tion to  any  cause  fervently  hope  to  be  the  witnesses  of  its 
assured  triumph.  Nor  do  I  deny  that  success  makes  the  pulses 
of  enterprise  beat  faster  and  fuller.  Like  the  touch  of  the  god- 
dess, it  transforms  the  still  marble  into  breathing  life.  But  yet 
all  history,  sacred  and  profane,  is  filled  with  illustrations  of  the 
truth,  that  success,  and  especially  contemporary  success,  is  not 
the  test  of  merit.  Our  own  observation  in  the  world  in  which 
we  move  proves  the  same  truth.  Has  not  popular  applause 
ascended  like  incense  before  tyrants  who  surrendered  their  lives 
to  the  basest  and  most  degrading  passions  ?  Have  not  reproach 
and  persecution,  and  poverty  and  defeat,  been  the  companions 
of  noble  men  in  all  ages,  who  have  given  their  toil  and  blood 
to  great  causes?  Are  they  less  noble  because  they  were  the 
victims  of  arbitrary  power,  or  because  an  untoward  generation 
would  not  appreciate  the  grand  problems  which  they  solved,  or 
because  they  lived  in  a  generation  which  w^as  not  worthy  of 
them? 

If  we  now  call  the  roll  of  the  worthies  who  have  given  to 
the  world  its  valued  treasures  of  thought  or  faith,  or  who  have 
subdued  nature  or  developed  art,  it  will  be  found  that  nearly  all 
of  them  were  in  a  life-long  grapple  with  defeat  and  disaster. 
Some,  and  amongst  them  those  whose  names  shine  the  bright- 


Appendix.  441 

■est,  would  have  welcomed  neglect  as  a  boon,  but  instead  en- 
dured shame  and  martyrdom. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  tribute  of  our  admiration  is 
more  due  to  him  who,  in  spite  of  disaster,  pursues  the  cause 
which  he  has  espoused,  than  to  one  who  requires  the  stimulus 
of  the  applause  of  an  admiring  public.  We  are  sure  of  a 
worthy  object  when  we  give  our  plaudits  to  the  earnest  soul 
who  has  followed  his  convictions  in  the  midst  of  peril  and  dis- 
aster because  of  his  faith  in  them. 

It  is  well  that  even  every  honest  effort  in  the  cause  of  right 
and  truth  is  not  always  crowned  with  success.  Defeat  is  the 
discipline  which  trains  the  truly  heroic  soul  to  further  and 
better  endeavors.  And  if  these  last  should  fail,  and  he  can  do 
battle  no  more,  he  can  lay  down  his  armor  with  the  assurance 
that  others  will  put  it  on,  and  in  God's  good  time  vindicate  the 
truth  in  whose  behalf  he  had  not  vainly  spent  his  life. 

Our  people,  since  the  termination  of  the  war,  have  illustrated 
the  lessons  learned  in  the  school  of  adversity.  Having  vindi- 
cated their  valor  and  endurance  during  the  conflict,  they  have 
since  exhibited  their  patience  and  self-control  under  the  most 
trying  circumstances.  Their  dignity  in  the  midst  of  poverty 
and  reverses,  their  heroic  resignation  to  what  they  could  not 
avert,  have  shown  that  subjugation  itself  could  not  conquer 
true  greatness  of  soul.  And  by  none  have  these  virtues  been 
illustrated  more  impressively  than  by  the  veterans  of  the  long 
conflict,  who  laid  down  their  arms  at  its  close  and  mingled 
again  with  their  fellow-citizens,  distinguished  from  the  rest 
only  by  their  superior  reverence  for  law,  their  patient  indus- 
try, their  avoidance  of  all  that  might  cause  needless  irritation 
and  provoke  new  humiliations,  and  their  readiness  to  regard 
as  friends  in  peace  those  whom  they  had  so  recently  resisted 
as  enemies  in  war. 

The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits.  Your  Excellency  has  re- 
minded us  that  our  civilization  should  be  judged  by  the  charac- 
ter of  the  men  it  has  produced.  If  our  recent  revolution  had 
been  irradiated  by  the  lustre  of  but  the  two  names — Lee  and 
J.\CKSON — it  would  still  have  illumined  one  of  the  brightest 
pages  in  history. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  the  former  to-day ;  not  because  my 
heart  was  not  full  of  him,  but  because  the  occasion  required 
me  to  speak  of  another,  and  because  the  day  is  not  distant  when 
one  more  competent  to  do  justice  to  this  great  theme  than  I 
have  been  to  mine  will  address  another  assembly  of  the  men 


442  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

of  the  South,  and  North,  and  West,  upon  these  CapitoB 
grounds,  when  our  new  Pantheon  will  be  completed  by  the 
erection  of  another  monument,  and  the  inauguration  of  the 
statue  of  Lee,  with  his  generals  around  him,  amid  the  tears- 
and  gratulations  of  a  countless  multitude. 

It  was  with  matchless  magnanimity  that  these  two  great 
chieftains  delighted  each  to  contribute  to  the  glory  of  the 
other.  Let  us  not  dishonor  ourselves  by  robbing  either  of  one 
leaf  in  the  chaplet  which  adorns  their  brows ;  but,  catching  the 
inspiration  of  their  lofty  example,  let  us  thank  God  that  he 
gave  us  two  such  names  to  shine  as  binary  stars  in  the  firma- 
ment above  us. 

It  was  in  the  noontide  of  Jackson's  glory  that  he  fell ;  but 
what  a  pall  of  darkness  suddenly  shrouded  all  the  land  in  that 
hour !  If  any  illustration  were  needed  of  the  hold  he  had  ac- 
quired on  the  hearts  of  our  people,  on  the  hearts  of  the  good 
and  brave  and  true  throughout  all  the  civilized  world,  it  would 
be  found  in  the  universal  lament  which  went  up  everywhere 
when  it  was  announced  that  Jackson  was  dead — from  the  little 
girl  at  the  Chandler  House,  who  "wished  that  God  would  let 
her  die  in  his  stead,  because  then  only  her  mother  would  cry ; 
but  if  Jackson  died,  all  the  people  of  the  country  would  cry" — 
from  this  humble  child  up  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  who 
wept  as  only  the  strong  and  brave  can  weep  at  the  tidings  of 
his  fall ;  from  the  weather-beaten  sea-captain,  who  had  never 
seen  his  face,  but  who  burst  into  loud  uncontrollable  grief, 
standing  on  the  deck  of  his  vessel,  with  his  rugged  sailors 
around  him  wondering  what  had  happened  to  break  that  heart 
of  oak,  up  to  the  English  earl,  honored  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  who  exclaimed,  when  the  sad  news  came  to  him, 
"Jackson  was  in  some  respects  the  greatest  man  America  ever 
produced." 

The  impressive  ceremonies  of  the  hour  will  bring  back  to 
some  here  present  the  memories  of  that  day  of  sorrow,  when, 
at  the  firing  of  a  gun  at  the  base  of  yonder  monument,  a  pro- 
cession began  to  move  to  the  solemn  strains  of  the  Dead  Marcb 
in  Saul — the  hearse  on  which  the  dead  hero  lay  preceded  by  a 
portion  of  the  command  of  General  Pickett,  whose  funeral 
obsequies  you  have  just  celebrated,  and  followed  by  a  mighty 
throng  of  weeping  citizens,  until,  having  made  a  detour  of  the- 
city,  it  paused  at  the  door  of  the  Capitol,  when  the  body  was 
borne  within  by  reverent  hands  and  laid  on  an  altar  erected 
beneath  the  dome. 


I 


Appendix.  443. 

The  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  had  adopted  a  de- 
vice for  their  flag,  and  one  emblazoned  with  it  had  just  been 
completed,  which  was  intended  to  be  unfurled  from  the  roof 
of  the  Capitol.  It  never  fluttered  from  the  height  it  was 
intended  to  grace.  It  became  Jackson's  winding-sheet.  Oh  1 
mournful  prophecy  of  the  fate  of  the  Confederacy  itself ! 

The  military  authorities  shrouded  him  in  the  white,  red,  and 
blue  flag  of  the  Confederacy.  The  citizens  decked  his  bier 
with  the  white,  red,  and  blue  flowers  of  spring  until  they  rose 
high  above  it  a  soft  floral  pyramid ;  but  the  people  everywhere 
embalmed  him  in  their  hearts  with  a  love  sweeter  than  all  the 
fragrance  of  spring,  and  immortal  as  the  verdure  of  the  trees 
under  which  he  now  rests  by  the  river  of  life. 

And  where,  in  all  the  annals  of  the  world's  sorrow  for  de- 
parted worth,  was  there  such  a  pathetic  impersonation  of  a 
nation's  grief  as  was  embodied  in  the  old  mutilated  veteran  of 
Jackson's  division,  who,  as  the  shades  of  evening  fell,  and 
when  the  hour  for  the  closing  of  the  doors  of  the  Capitol  came,, 
and  when  the  lingering  throng  was  warned  to  retire,  was  seen 
anxiously  pressing  through  the  crowd  to  take  his  last  look  at 
the  face  of  his  beloved  leader.  "They  told  him  he  was  too 
late ;  that  they  were  closing  up  the  coffin  for  the  last  time ;  that 
the  order  had  been  given  to  clear  the  hall.  He  still  struggled 
forward,  refusing  to  take  a  denial,  until  one  of  the  marshals  of 
the  day  was  about  to  exercise  his  authority  to  force  him  back ; 
upon  this  the  old  soldier  lifted  the  stump  of  his  right  arm  to- 
ward the  heavens,  and  with  tears  running  down  his  bearded 
face,  exclaimed,  'By  this  arm,  which  I  lost  for  my  country,  I 
demand  the  privilege  of  seeing  my  general  once  more !'  Such 
an  appeal  was  irresistible,  and,  at  the  instance  of  the  Governor 
of  the  Commonwealth,  the  pomp  was  arrested  until  this  humble 
comrade  had  also  dropped  his  tear  upon  the  face  of  his  dead 
leader." 

Your  Excellency  did  well  to  make  the  path  broad  which  leads 
through  these  Capitol  grounds  to  this  statue,  for  it  will  be 
trodden  by  the  feet  of  all  who  visit  this  city,  whether  they  come 
from  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  the  Mississippi,  or  the  Sacra- 
mento ;  whether  from  the  Tiber,  the  Rhine,  or  the  Danube. 

Tender  though  they  be,  cold  and  sad  are  the  closing  lines  of 
Collins  in  his  ode  to  the  memory  of  the  brave  whose  rest  is- 
hallowed  by  their  country's  benedictions,  depicting  as  they  do. 
Honor  coming  as  "a  pilgrim  gray,"  and  Freedom  as  a  "weeping 
hermit"  repairing  to  the  graves  of  departed  heroes. 


444  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Not  so  will  Honor  come  to  this  shrine ;  not  as  a  worn  and 
weary  pilgrim,  but  as  a  generous  youth  with  burnished  shield 
and  stainless  sword,  and  heart  beating  high  in  sympathy  for 
the  right  and  true,  to  lay  his  mail-clad  hand  on  this  altar  and 
swear  eternal  fealty  to  duty  and  to  God. 

Nor  will  Freedom  for  a  time  only  repair  to  this  hallowed 
spot,  but  here  she  will  linger  long  and  hopefully,  not  as  a 
weeping  hermit,  but  as  a  radiant  divinity  conscious  of  immor- 
tality. 

It  is  true  that  memories  unutterably  sad  have  at  times  swept 
through  this  mighty  throng  to-day,  but  we  are  not  here  to  in- 
dulge in  reminiscences  only,  much  less  in  vain  regrets.  We 
have  a  future  to  face,  and  in  that  future  lies  not  only  duty,  and 
trials  perhaps,  but  also  hope. 

For  when  we  ask  what  has  become  of  the  principles  in  the 
defence  of  which  Jackson  imperilled  and  lost  his  life,  then  I 
answer :  A  form  of  government  may  change,  a  policy  may 
perish,  but  a  principle  can  never  die.  Circumstances  may  so' 
change  as  to  make  the  application  of  the  principle  no  longer 
possible,  but  its  innate  vitality  is  not  afifected  thereby.  The 
conditions  of  society  may  be  so  altered  as  to  make  it  idle  to 
contend  for  a  principle  which  no  longer  has  any  practical  force, 
but  these  changed  conditions  of  society  have  not  annihilated 
one  original  truth. 

The  application  of  these  postulates  to  the  present  situation 
of  our  country  is  obvious.  The  people  of  the  South  main- 
tained, as  their  fathers  maintained  before  them,  that  certain 
principles  were  essential  to  the  perpetuation  of  the  Union  ac- 
cording to  its  original  constitution.  Rather  than  surrender 
their  conviction  they  took  up  arms  to  defend  them.  The  appeal 
was  vain.  Defeat  came,  and  they  accepted  it,  with  its  conse- 
quences, just  as  they  would  have  accepted  victory  with  its 
fruits.  They  have  sworn  to  maintain  the  government  as  it  is 
now  constituted.  They  will  not  attempt  again  to  assert  their 
views  of  State  sovereignty  by  an  appeal  to  the  sword.  None 
feel  this  obligation  to  be  more  binding  than  the  soldiers  of  the 
late  Confederate  armies.  A  soldier's  parole  is  a  sacred  thing, 
and  the  men  who  are  willing  to  die  for  a  principle  in  time  of 
war  are  the  men  of  all  others  most  likely  to  maintain  their 
personal  honor  in  time  of  peace. 

But  it  is  idle  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  this  consoli- 
dated empire  of  States  is  not  the  Union  established  by  our 
fathers.     No  intelligent  European  student  of  American  insti- 


Appendix.  445 

tutions  is  deceived  by  any  such  assumption.     We  gain  nothing" 
by  deceiving"  ourselves. 

And  if  history  teaches  any  lesson,  it  is  this,  that  a  nation 
cannot  long  survive  when  the  fundamental  principles  which 
gave  it  life  originally  are  subverted.  It  is  true  republics  have 
often  degenerated  into  despotism.  It  is  also  true  that  after 
such  transformation  they  have  for  a  time  been  characterized 
by  a  force,  a  prosperity,  and  a  glory  never  known  in  their 
earlier  annals,  but  it  has  always  been  a  force  which  absorbed 
and  obliterated  the  rights  of  the  citizen,  a  prosperity  which 
was  gained  by  the  sacrifice  of  individual  independence,  a  glory 
which  was  ever  the  precursor  of  inevitable  anarchy,  disin- 
tegration, and  ultimate  extinction. 

If  then  it  be  asked  how  are  we  to  escape  the  catastrophe,  I 
answer  by  a  voluntary  return  to  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  our  republic  was  originally  founded.  And  if  it  be 
objected  that  we  have  already  entered  upon  one  of  those  politi- 
cal revolutions  which  never  go  backward,  then  I  ask,  who  gave 
to  any  one  the  authority  to  say  so  ?  or  whence  comes  the  infalli- 
bility which  entitles  any  one  to  pronounce  a  judgment  so  over- 
whelming? Why  may  there  not  be  a  comprehension  of  what 
is  truly  politic,  and  what  is  grandly  right,  slumbering  in  the 
hearts  of  our  American  people — a  people  at  once  so  practical 
and  emotional,  so  capable  of  great  enterprise  and  greater  mag- 
nanimity— a  patriotism  which  is  yet  to  awake  and  announce 
itself  in  a  repudiation  of  all  unconstitutional  invasion  of  the 
liberties  of  the  citizens  df  any  portion  of  this  broad  Union? 
When  we  remember  the  awful  strain  to  which  the  principles 
of  other  constitutional  governments  have  been  subjected  in 
the  excitement  of  revolutionary  epochs,  and  how,  when  seem- 
ingly submerged  by  the  tempest,  they  have  risen  again  and 
reasserted  themselves  in  their  original  integrity,  why  should 
we  despair  of  seeing  the  ark  of  our  liberties  again  resting  on 
the  summit  of  the  mount,  and  hallowed  by  the  benediction  of 
Him  who  said,  "Behold,  I  do  set  my  bow  in  the  cloud?" 

And  now  standing  before  this  statue,  and,  as  in  the  living 
presence  of  the  man  it  represents,  cordially  endorsing,  as  I  do, 
the  principles  of  the  political  school  in  which  he  was  trained 
and  in  defence  of  which  he  died,  and  unable  yet  even  to  think 
of  our  dead  Confederacy  without  memories  unutterably  ten- 
der, I  speak  not  for  myself,  but  for  the  South,  when  I  sav  it 
is  our  interest,  our  duty  and  determination,  to  maintain  the 
Union,  and  to  make  every  possible  contribution  to  its  pros- 


446  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

parity  and  glory,  if  all  the  States  which  compose  it  will  unite 
in  making  it  such  a  Union  as  our  fathers  framed,  and  in  en- 
throning above  it,  not  a  Csesar,  but  the  Constitution  in  its  old 
supremacy. 

If  ever  these  States  are  welded  together  in  one  great  fra- 
ternal, enduring  Union,  with  one  heart  pulsating  through  the 
entire  frame  as  the  tides  throb  through  the  bosom  of  the  sea, 
it  will  be  when  they  all  stand  on  the  same  level,  with  such  a 
jealous  regard  for  each  other's  rights  that  when  the  interests 
•or  honor  of  one  is  assailed,  all  the  rest,  feeling  the  wound,  even 
as  the  body  feels  the  pain  inflicted  on  one  of  its  members,  will 
kindle  with  just  resentment  at  the  outrage,  because  an  injury 
done  to  a  part  is  not  only  a  wrong,  but  an  indignity  offered  to 
the  whole.  But  if  that  cannot  be,  then  I  trust  the  day  will 
•never  dawn  when  the  Southern  people  will  add  degradation  to 
defeat,  and  hypocrisy  to  subjugation,  by  professing  a  love  for 
the  Union  which  denies  to  one  of  their  States  a  single  right 
accorded  to  Massachusetts  or  New  York — to  such  a  Union  we 
will  never  be  heartily  loyal  while  that  bronze  hand  grasps  its 
sword — while  yonder  river  chants  the  requiem  of  the  sixteen 
thousand  Confederate  dead  who,  with  Stuart  among  them, 
sleep  on  the  hills  of  Hollywood. 

But  I  will  not  end  my  oration  with  an  anticipation  so  dis- 
heartening. I  cannot  so  end  it  because  I  look  forward  to  the 
future  with  more  of  hope  than  of  despondency.  I  believe  in 
the  perpetuity  of  republican  institutions,  so  far  as  any  work  of 
man  may  be  said  to  possess  that  attribute.  The  complete 
emancipation  of  our  constitutional  liberty  must  come  from 
other  quarters,  but  we  have  our  part  to  perform,  one  requiring 
patience,  prudence,  fortitude,  faith. 

A  cloud  of  witnesses  encompass  us.  The  bronze  figures  on 
these  monuments  seem  for  the  moment  to  be  replaced  by  the 
■spirits  of  the  immortal  men  whose  names  they  bear. 

As  if  an  angel  spoke  their  tones  thrill  our  hearts. 

First,  it  is  the  calm  voice  of  Washington  that  we  hear:  "Of 
all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which  lead  to  political  prosper- 
ity, religion  and  morality  are  indispensable  supports.  In  vain 
would  that  man  claim  the  tribute  of  patriotism  who  should 
labor  to  subvert  these  great  pillars  of  human  happiness,  these 
firmest  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and  citizens." 

Then,  Henry's  clarion  notes  arouse  us:  "Liberty,  the  great- 
est of  all  earthly  blessings :  give  us  that  precious  jewel,  and  you 
may  take  all  the  rest !" 


1 


Appendix.  447 

Then  Jefferson  speaks :  "Fellow-citizens,  it  is  proper  you 
should  understand  what  I  deem  the  essential  principles  of  gov- 
ernment. Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men  of  whatsoever 
state  or  persuasion,  religious  or  political.  The  support  of 
State  governments  in  all  their  rights,  as  the  surest  bulwarks 
against  anti-republican  tendencies;  the  preservation  of  the 
general  government  in  its.  whole  constitutional  vigor  as  the 
sheet-anchor  of  our  peace  at  home  and  safety  abroad ;  the  su- 
premacy of  the  civil  over  military  authority;  the  honest  pay- 
ment of  our  debts  and  sacred  preservation  of  the  public  faith. 
And  should  we  wander  from  these  principles  in  moments  of 
error  and  alarm,  let  us  hasten  to  retrace  our  steps,  and  to 
regain  the  road  which  alone  leads  to  peace,  liberty  and  safety." 

And  last  it  is  Jackson's  clear,  ringing  tone  to  which  we 
hsten:  "What  is  life  without  honor?  Degradation  is  worse 
than  death.  We  must  think  of  the  living  and  of  those  who  are 
to  come  after  us,  and  see  that  by  God's  blessing  we  transmit 
to  them  the  freedom  we  have  enjoyed." 

Heaven,  hear  the  prayer  of  our  dead,  immortal  hero ! 


II. 

ADDRESS 

At  the  Mass-meeting  in  the  Capitol  Square,  Richmond,  Va.,  after- 
the  Assassination  of  President  Garfield,  July  5,  1881. 

I  was  not  aware  until  this  afternoon  tliat  this  meeting  was  to 
be  held.  I  see  great  significance  in  such  an  assemblage.  It 
shows  that  you,  the  people  of  Richmond,  wish  to  speak  for 
yourselves — not  by  proxy,  but  individually,  to  give  expression 
to  the  feeling  which  now  fills  every  mind  and  heart.  My  hon- 
ored friend,  the  Governor  of  this  commonwealth,  has  already 
in  a  brief,  comprehensive  telegram  communicated  to  the  Presi- 
dent the  feelings  of  the  people  of  Virginia — detestation  of  the 
crime  which  has  caused  sorrow,  and  sympathy  for  the  sorrow 
itself;  and  on  last  Sunday  there  was  another  significant  indi- 
cation of  the  feeling  of  our  people.  No  pastor  in  this  city  knew 
what  was  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  any  other  pastor.  It  may  be 
that  each  one  thought  he  was  alone  in  giving  expression  to  the 
emotion  which  he  knew  to  be  swelling  in  the  bosoms  of  the 
people  of  his  charge ;  and  yet  every  one  gave  utterance  to  that 
emotion,  and  either  in  his  sermon  or  his  prayers  remembered 
the  sufferer,  and  besought  God's  gracious  help  and  consolation 
in  his  behalf. 

And  yet,  my  friends,  though  the  Governor  of  the  common- 
wealth had  spoken  for  you,  though  reverend  men  of  God  had 
interpreted  your  emotions  in  all  your  solemn  assemblies,  this 
would  not  suffice ;  and  you  are  here  yourselves  to-night,  though 
hastily  summoned,  to  speak  directly  for  yourselves,  and  thus 
give  relief  to  the  pent-up  feeling  which  demands  the  fullest 
expression  which  a  people,  at  once  indignant  and  sorrowing, 
can  give. 

Ah,  yes,  sadly  do  I  remember  the  memorable  day  to  which 
his  honor  Mayor  Keiley  has  referred,  when  we  met  in  this  very 
place  to  commemorate  what  was  called  "the  Capitol  disaster." 
That  was  a  day  of  gloom  and  anguish — a  day  of  tears,  of  bleed- 
ing, broken  hearts.     But  that  calamity  affected  a  community 


Appendix.  449 

only.    The  one  which  absorbs  us  to-night  touches  the  heart  of 
the  world. 

In  my  frequent  visits  to  Europe,  on  my  return  voyage  I 
naturally  make  comparisons  between  my  own  country  and  those 
I  have  just  been  studying.  At  each  return  I  am  filled  with  new 
admiration  for  the  land  of  my  nativity  and  love.  These  heavens 
do  not  bend  over  any  land  so  favored  by  natural  advantages, 
so  enriched  by  material  resources  as  ours.  These  quiet  stars  do 
not  look  down  upon  any  continent  with  such  possibilities  as 
ours.  And  yet,  with  all  my  fond  hopes  and  glowing  anticipa- 
tions of  the  splendid  future  in  store  for  us,  I  am  invariably 
depressed  with  one  apprehension:  that  all  these  physical  ad- 
vantages, all  these  prospects  of  prosperity  and  glory  may  be 
illusive,  because  of  the  failure  of  the  experiment  of  self- 
government,  because  republican  institutions  may  be  unable  to 
bear  the  strain  to  which  they  are  subjected  by  the  fanaticism 
of  factions,  unrestrained  by  constitutional  limits,  and  utterly 
contemptuous  of  the  authority  of  law. 

Parties  may  be  essential  to  the  healthful  life  of  republican 
institutions,  but  blind,  unreasoning  factions,  incapable  of  reason, 
animated  only  by  prejudice  and  hate,  these  are  the  foes  so  full 
of  menace  to  constitutional  liberty  which  now  confront  us. 

Insanity  is  an  awful  visitation,  even  when  it  maddens  a  single 
mind  ;  but  whole  communities  sometimes  become  insane.  Fa- 
naticisms have  often  become  national  epidemics,  and  when 
faction,  at  once  malignant  and  insane,  begins  to  work  in  the 
body  politic,  it  is  like  one  of  the  hateful  maladies  which  some- 
times infest  the  physical  frame — it  fevers  and  pollutes  the 
whole  structure  until  it  at  last  breaks  out  in  some  incurable 
ulcer,  premonitory  of  death. 

Such  is  faction,  whose  motto  never  is  "Principles  not  Men," 
nor  "Principles  and  Men,"  but  "Men  without  Principles;" 
loyal  not  to  law  or  duty,  but  to  money,  to  place,  to  ambition,  to 
power.  That  was  a  noble  sentiment  of  Edmund  Burke  when 
he  declared  that  all  just  political  principles  were  the  principles 
of  morality  practically  applied.  Do  not  our  hearts  go  with  him 
when  we  hear  him  say,  "Neither  do  I  now,  nor  will  I  ever,  ad- 
mit anything  else  to  be  true?" 

Behold  that  beautiful  constellation  of  Ursa  Major  as  it  rolls 
unceasingly  and  unchanged  in  position  around  the  polar  star, 
to  which  it  points  us  forever.  So  should  our  thoughts  and 
aspirations  be  directed  ever  to  the  polar  star  of  principle,  and 


450  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

never  for  a  moment  be  diverted  from  their  true  course,  to  follow 
after  the  false  and  vicious  teachings  of  fanaticism  and  faction, 
which,  like  yonder  baleful  comet,  spring  from  one  knows  not 
where,  nor  for  what  evil  purpose,  and  disappear  one  knows 
not  whither. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  would  impress  this  truth  upon  you,  "That 
which  is  morally  wrong  can  never  be  politically  right." 

A  Guiteau  may  say,  "1  slay  a  President  to  secure  the  unity 
of  a  party."  A  united  party  is  necessary  to  factional  triumph ; 
but  Guiteau  had  a  predecessor.  Milton,  in  his  picture  of  Satan, 
tells  us  of  a  speech  he  made,  and  adds — 

"  So  spake  the  fiend,  and  with  necessity, 
The  tyrant's  plea,  excused  his  devilish  deeds." 

Fellow-citizens,  the  great  calamity  which  now  hushes  party 
clamor  and  rebukes  sectional  animosity,  and  which,  by  the  fu- 
sion of  a  common  sorrow,  welds  us  together,  reminds  us  of  the 
way  in  which  God,  in  his  providence,  compels  us  to  recognize 
the  dependence  of  man  upon  man,  state  upon  state,  and  nation 
upon  nation. 

When  a  war  breaks  out  between  two  great  kingdoms,  sepa- 
rated from  us  by  the  ocean,  we  may  seem  to  have  no  interest  in 
it ;  we  may  think  so,  but  soon  we  are  convinced  of  our  mistake. 
It  affects  us,  involves  us,  quite  independent  of  our  wishes. 
Commerce  is  interrupted,  trade  ceases,  provisions  become  scarce 
and  dear,  and  a  poor  widow  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde,  the 
Seine,  the  Mississippi,  the  James,  or  the  Sacramento,  loses  her 
annuity,  and  presently  suffers,  because  of  a  war  waged  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sea. 

Or  a  pestilential  fever  smites  the  cities  of  our  Southern 
States,  and  from  Canada,  from  New  England,  from  the  great 
States  of  the  Northwest,  contributions  come,  and  nurses  and 
medicines  and  provisions,  and  a  thousand  tender  expressions  of 
sympathy. 

Or  a  famine,  like  one  which  has  so  often  desolated  Ireland, 
smites  that  land,  and  all  Christendom  becomes  responsive  to 
Ireland's  sorrow,  and  even  the  pagan  and  Mohammedan  world 
unite  in  the  sacred  ministry  of  relief  to  the  suffering.  Thus 
God  makes  the  very  wounds  of  humanity  the  fountains  from 
which  issue  the  tenderest  sympathies  and  the  sweetest  charities, 
which  bring  comfort  to  the  suffering  and  which  make  the  whole 
world  akin  in  the  consciousness  of  common  interest  and  inter- 
dependence. 


Appendix.  451 

]\Iost  impressively  has  this  lesson  been  taught  us  by  the  sor- 
-row  which  brings  us  here  to-night.  Our  President  has  been 
assailed  by  a  murderous  assassin.  North,  South,  East,  and 
West  are  blended  and  fused  by  one  common  sorrow ;  magnetic 
wires  through  all  seas  convey  messages  of  condolence  and  sym- 
pathy; Japan  and  China  unite  with  European  states;  paganism 
and  Mohammedanism  are  conjoined  with  Christendom  in  the 
■  expression  of  a  united  hope  that  the  bereavement  we  apprehend 
may  be  averted,  and  that  our  President  may  be  spared  to  us. 

But  the  cloud  still  pends.  The  crisis  is  not  yet  over.  Let  us 
■make  that  cloud  a  pavilion  for  prayer.  Let  us  fringe  its  lurid 
edges  with  sympathy,  with  hope,  and  with  rekindled  fires  of  pa- 
triotism, shining  all  the  brighter  because  relumed  at  the  altar 
of  our  common  country. 


III. 

FAMILY  RELIGION. 

An  Address  before  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  in  Copenhagen. 

I  suppose  it  has  seldom  happened  that  one  has  been  required' 
to  deliver  an  address  in  circumstances  like  these. 

When  I  entered  this  place  to-night,  I  did  not  know  what  sub- 
ject was  under  discussion;  and  when  my  honored  friend,  Dr. 
Schaff,  from  New  York,  urged  me  to  follow  the  reverend' 
brother  who  has  just  concluded,  I  felt  that  it  would  be  pre- 
sumptuous to  address  this  august  assembly  without  premedi- 
tation or  time  even  for  arranging  the  line  of  thought  appropri- 
ate to  the  theme  under  discussion ;  but  I  do  not  obtrude  myself 
upon  the  audience,  and  I  shall  have  your  sympathy  in  obedience 
to  the  sudden  call  which  has  been  made  on  me,  as  I  attempt  to 
give  expression  to  such  thoughts  as  the  occasion  suggests. 

And  now,  fathers  and  brethren,  as  I  stand  here,  I  would  not 
know  how  to  begin,  but  for  the  happy  remembrance  of  the 
sermon  which  I  heard  yesterday  morning  in  the  English  church. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Anderson,  of  Bath,  in  a  discourse  characterized 
by  great  fervor  and  unction,  remarked  that  we  were  educated 
not  so  much  by  the  books  we  studied  as  by  the  people  with  whom 
we  have  intercourse ;  that  while  much  important  technical  in- 
formation was  derived  from  books,  the  potent  influences  which 
shaped  our  characters  and  guided  our  lives  came  from  the' 
opinions  of  the  men  with  whom  we  held  familiar  intercourse, 
and  from  the  example  of  those  with  whom  we  were  in  constant- 
association.  This  is  a  great  and  solemn  truth.  We  are  all 
sculptors,  not  like  your  great  Thorwaldsen  in  shaping  blocks, 
of  marble  into  forms  of  beauty,  but  in  moulding  the  characters^ 
of  those  with  whom  we  come  in  contact  into  those  forms  which 
they  will  wear  through  this  life,  and  possibly  wear  forever ;  but 
if  such  is  the  power  of  the  influences  which  fashion  us  in  our 
intercourse  with  society  at  large,  how  much  more  powerful  must 
the  influences  be  which  are  daily  and  hourly  exerted  in  the  nar- 
row circle  of  home ;  how  much  more  complete  the  education  of 
both  mind  and  heart  which  comes  from  the  precepts  and  ex- 


Appendix. 


453 


amples  of  parents  in  their  intimate  association  with  their 
children,  who  in  the  most  impressible  years  of  life  are  looking 
to  these  their  natural  teachers  and  guides  for  counsel  and  direc- 
tion. 

Religion  is  a  power  in  the  world  wherever  exhibited,  but  how 
much  more  in  the  household  where  its  daily  lessons  may  be 
taught  under  circumstances  the  most  favorable  for  making  the 
deepest  and  most  enduring  impression.  I  was  but  seven  years 
old  when  my  father  died,  and  when  the  funeral  services  were 
over,  and  when  the  strange,  sad  silence  filled  the  house  which  is 
so  impressive  after  the  burial  of  one  beloved,  and  when  the  even- 
ing of  the  mournful  day  drew  on,  our  mother  gathered  us,  her 
little  children,  in  her  chamber,  and  told  us  that  she  meant  here- 
after to  take  our  father's  place,  as  God  might  help  her,  as  the 
head  of  the  household,  and  she  would  commence  that  night  by 
conducting  family  prayers. 

Were  I  to  live  beyond  the  age  of  the  venerable  president  of 
this  alliance^  I  could  not  forget  that  scene;  could  not  forget 
the  manner  in  which  she  read  God's  word,  or  the  low  and 
tremulous  tones  of  the  prayer  in  which  she  besought  strength 
and  comfort,  and  commended  her  children  to  the  care  and  love 
of  the  covenant-keeping  God.  None  of  you,  my  English 
friends  of  this  audience,  are  unacquainted  with  the  tender  lines 
of  one  of  your  own  favorite  poets,  "written  on  the  receipt  of 
his  mother's  picture,"  commencing — 

"  O  that  those  lips  had  language !     Life  has  pass'd 
With  me  but  roughly  since  I  saw  thee  last." 

Nor  have  you  forgotten  the  stanza  in  which  he  gratefully  em- 
balms the  memory  of  those  to  whom  he  owed  a  debt  never  to  be 
paid — 

"  My  boast  is  not  that  I  deduce  my  birth 
From  loins  enthroned  or  rulers  of  the  earth, 
But  higher  far  my  proud  intentions  rise. 
The  child  of  parents  passed  into  the  skies." 

And  as  one  quotation  suggests  another,  you,  my  friends  from 
another  land,  will  allow  me  to  remind  you  of  a  hallowed  scene 
depicted  by  one  of  the  greatest  bards,  not  only  of  Scotland,  but 
of  the  world— the  picture  of  'The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  ' 
when  the  family,  gathered  for  evening  worship,  formed  a  circle 
round  the  fireside,  and  when  the  old  patriarch,  having  read  a 
portion  from  "the  big  ha'  Bible,"  and  all  together  having  sung  a 

'  Dr.  Kalkar. 


454  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Psalm,  borne  upward  by  "Dundee's  Wild  Warbling  Notes,"  or 
"Plaintive  Martyrs,"  or  "Noble  Elgin" — 

"  Then  kneeling  down  to  heaven's  Eternal  King, 
The  saint,  the  husband  and  the  father  prays; 

Hope  springs  exulting  on  triumphant  wing, 
That  thus  they  all  shall  meet  in  future  days; 

No  more  to  sigh  or  shed  the  bitter  tear, 
Together  hymning  their  Creator's  praise, 

In  such  society,  yet  still  more  dear, 

While  circling  time  moves  round  in  an  eternal  sphere." 

There  is  a  picture  of  family  worship  whose  outlines  will  never 
grow  dim,  and  whose  colors  will  not  fade. 

Well  was  it  said,  "From  scenes  like  these  old  Scotia's  gran- 
deur springs,"  and  as  long  as  piety  in  the  household  continues 
to  be  the  characteristic  of  the  life  of  the  people  of  any  land,  it 
will  never  be  without  the  patriot  soldier  to  defend  its  rights, 
or  the  patriot  bard  to  sing  its  glories.  Then  let  family  worship 
open  the  gates  of  the  morning  with  praise,  and  close  the  portals 
of  the  day  with  peace ;  let  the  children  grow  up  under  the  hal- 
lowing influences  of  household  piety,  and  these  salutary  im- 
pressions will  never  be  effaced.  They  will  sink  down  in  the 
heart  of  the  child  as  the  dew  sinks  down  in  the  heart  of  the 
flower,  giving  refreshment  and  gathering  sweetness.  The  good 
seed,  falling  on  the  tender  heart,  softened  by  grace,  will  not 
perish,  but  will  spring  up  to  bear  precious  fruits  in  this  life, 
and  perchance  to  flourish  beautiful  and  immortal  in  the  paradise 
of  God. 

One  of  the  most  memorable  voyages  ever  made  was  when  the 
apostle,  "having  loosed  from  Troas,  came  with  a  straight  course 
to  Samothracia,  and  the  next  day  to  Neapolis,  and  thence  to 
Philippi,"  where  he  preached  the  first  gospel  sermon  ever  heard 
in  Europe,  in  the  place  of  prayer  by  the  riverside.  The  first 
convert  was  a  woman  and  a  mother,  who  was  baptized  with  her 
household.  The  "man  of  Macedonia"  who  cried,  "Come  over 
and  help  us,"  did  not  inform  Paul  how  the  help  was  to  be  ad- 
ministered, or  in  what  particular  form  it  would  immediately 
come;  but  zve  know  that  Europe  was  first  helped  by  the  con- 
version of  a  woman,  and  that  woman  a  mother !  This  is  a  lesson 
for  all  the  ages. 

If  there  is  to  be  but  one  pious  person  in  the  family,  let  that 
one  be  the  mother.  She  has  the  earliest  and  best  opportunity 
with  the  child — the  father's  influence  comes  afterwards.     The 


Appendix.  455 

mother's  teachinc^  is  remembered  longest,  and  often  is  the  last 
upon  which  the  blessing  of  God  rests.  Were  I  now  to  make  the 
appeal,  would  not  hundreds  of  men  rise  up  in  this  great  assem- 
bly, gathered  from  all  lands,  and  testify,  if  required,  that,  under 
God,  they  owed  their  conversion  to  a  mother's  tender  importu- 
nity, or  to  the  silent  power  of  her  example,  and  the  ever-present 
influence  of  her  sweet  and  saintly  life?  It  may  be  that  she  no 
longer  lives  on  earth,  but  when  I  pronounce  the  word  mother, 
it  matters  not  in  what  language,  to  some  of  you  it  is  like  a  voice 
from  heaven — it  is  as  if  an  angel  spoke — and  you  hear  it  with 
the  listening  ear  of  the  heart.  And  never  can  you  forget  the 
hours  of  childhood,  when  each  night  before  retiring  to  rest  she 
made  you  kneel  down  at  her  feet,  and  taking  your  little  hand  in 
hers,  or  laying  her  soft  hand  upon  your  head — you  can  feel  its 
gentle  pressure  now — she  taught  you  to  say,  "Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven,"  or  that  other  prayer,  so  familiar  to  all  English- 
speaking  people,  commencing,  "Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep" — ■ 
a  good  prayer  for  a  child,  for  a  man,  for  a  patriarch. 

The  apostle  sent  his  salutation  to  the  "church  in  the  house." 
So  long  as  there  are  true,  apostolic,  evangelic  churches  in  house- 
holds, there  will  be  the  same  kind  of  churches  in  kingdoms,  in 
republics,  in  all  the  world.  Should  the  church  in  the  house 
exist  no  more,  then  the  church  in  the  city,  in  the  state,  in  the 
world  will  become  extinct ;  but  this  will  never  be  while  Chris- 
tian life  is  cherished  and  perpetuated  in  the  family. 

God  bless  every  good  mother  in  Denmark,  and  every  pious 
household  represented  here  to-night  in  this  great  gathering  of 
his  people  from  so  many  nations  of  the  earth. 


IV. 

THE  PRIVATE  SOLDIER. 

An  Address  before  the  Mass-77ieeting  held  in  the  interest  of  the 
Monument  on  Libby  Hill,  Richmond,  Va.,  Nov.  30,  1892. 

It  is  said  that  on  each  of  the  four  sides  of  the  monument  to 
the  memory  of  the  Confederate  dead  in  New  Orleans  is  carved 
a  calm  and  noble  face.  One  is  that  of  Albert  Sidney  Johnston, 
another  is  that  of  the  warrior  bishop,  General  Polk,  a  third  is 
that  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  and  the  fourth  is  that  of  Robert  E. 
Lee ;  but  on  the  top  of  the  monumental  shaft,  looking  down  on 
the  heroic  group  below,  is  the  figure,  the  typical  figure,  of  the 
Confederate  private  soldier — type  of  the  men  worthy  to  follow 
such  leaders  as  those  whose  faces  are  sculptured  on  the  column, 
and  v/ithout  whose  following  even  these  great  leaders  would 
not  have  won  the  positions  they  occupy  on  the  shaft  and  on  the 
pages  of  immortal  history.  It  is  to  the  memory  of  such  men 
that  I  come  to-night,  in  obedience  to  your  call,  to  pay  this 
tribute. 

In  doing  so  I  am  only  giving  expression  to  your  emotions.  I 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  greeting  you  have  just  given  me  is 
because  I  am  the  channel  through  which  your  own  best  feelings 
are  flowing.  I  am  but  a  voice ;  the  spirit  which  animates  it 
comes  from  this  splendid  audience,  and  you  honor  me  in  making 
me  the  medium  of  your  own  generous,  grateful  and  loving 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  Confederate  dead. 

It  is  well  that  we  give  this  expression  of  our  regard  for  them 
— for  what  did  they  give  us?  What  did  they  not  give  us? 
What  was  there  dear  in  the  homes  they  left  behind,  never  to  be 
revisited  again  ;  what  was  there  precious  in  the  ties  of  affection, 
sundered  never  to  be  renewed  on  earth  again,  which  they  did 
not  sacrifice  for  us  ?  What  was  there  of  privation  or  peril  in  the 
camp,  on  the  march,  on  the  bloody  front  of  battle,  or  in  the  hos- 
pital where  they  languished  when  the  battle  was  over,  which 
they  did  not  endure  for  us? 

We  can  never  pay  the  debt  we  owe  them,  but  we  can  cherish 


Appendix.  457 

the  recollection  of  all  that  made  them  worthy  of  our  love ;   we 
can  treasure  their  names  and  embalm  their  memories, 

— "with  all  our  hearts  can  give, 
Our  praises  and  our  tears." 

The  privates,  who  at  the  first  tap  of  the  drum  sprang  to  arms 
when  the  conflict  commenced,  were  not  professional  soldiers ; 
they  did  not  go  to  the  field  seeking  the  "bubble  reputation"  or 
the  glory  which  is  won  by  feats  of  valor;  but  they  were  men 
who  came  from  the  sanctities  of  home,  from  the  peaceful  avoca- 
tions of  business  or  professional  life ;  many  of  them  merchants 
■or  mechanics ;  most  of  them  farmers ;  some  of  them  students 
in  schools,  colleges,  and  theological  seminaries ;  yet  all  of  them, 
every  man  of  them,  every  boy  of  them,  at  the  sacred  call  of  duty, 
perilled  all,  and  for  principle  sacrificed  all,  committing  their 
■souls  to  God  and  their  memories  to  us  who  might  survive  them. 

And  we  will  be  faithful  to  the  trust.  I  stand  here  to-night,  in 
the  name  of  this  gallant  regiment,  in  the  name  of  this  responsive 
audience,  in  the  name  of  this  historic  city,  in  the  name  of  this 
venerable  commonwealth,  in  the  name  of  the  fair  women  and 
brave  men  of  this  whole  Southland,  to  declare  by  all  that  is 
sacred  in  the  obligation  we  owe  to  the  memories  of  the  men  who 
laid  down  their  lives  for  us,  we  will  be  faithful  to  the  trust. 
We  do  not  permit  even  time,  which  buries  so  much  in  oblivion, 
to  diminish  our  sense  of  obligation,  or  our  appreciation  of  what 
they  were  and  of  what  they  suffered.  As  at  the  battle  of  the 
First  Manassas  General  Jackson  declined  to  have  the  sentinels 
posted,  saying,  "Let  the  weary  fellows  sleep,  I  will  guard  the 
camp,"  so  we  who  survive  mean  to  stand  guard  over  the  honor 
and  fame,  not  of  the  Confederate  living — for  they  can  protect 
themselves — but  over  the  honor  and  fame  of  those  who  sleep 
their  last  sleep  on  the  field  of  duty  and  glory.  So  will  we  keep 
their  memories  fresh  and  green  where  they  can  be  best  perpetu- 
ated ;  not  by  flowers  strewn  on  their  graves,  for  these  soon 
wither  and  are  scattered  like  leaves  in  wintry  weather,  but  by 
the  flowers  of  loving  remembrance  which  grow  in  our  hearts, 
and  which  are  watered  only  by  tears.  These  are  immortal,  and 
bloom  in  beauty  and  fragrance  forever.  And  there  is  yet  some- 
thing more  that  we  may  do — we  can  give  some  visible  expres- 
sion of  the  sentiments  we  cherish  in  our  hearts. 

When  two  hundred  feet  above  the  summit  of  Libby  Hill,  on 
the  top  of  the  towering  monumental  shaft  we  are  going  to 
erect  there,  the  noble  image  of  the  private  Confederate  soldier 


458  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

shall  be  seen  standing  as  if  surveying  the  ramparts  of  Drewry's 
Bluff  and  the  battlefields  of  the  Chickahominy,  we  shall  have 
that  visible  expression  in  granite  and  in  bronze  which  all  men 
may  see  and  understand. 

The  question  has  been  asked — I  would  not  repeat  it  were  it 
not  so  often  asked — why  erect  such  monuments  at  all?  The 
Confederacy  is  dead  and  can  never  be  revived.  Why  keep  alive 
memories  that  had  better  be  buried  in  oblivion  ?  Why  perpetu- 
ate the  memory  of  a  lost  cause?  Why,  indeed?  I  respond.  If 
that  were  the  object  in  erecting  such  monuments — if  that  were 
the  result  of  rearing  them — then  I,  for  one,  would  never  lift  a 
finger  or  utter  a  word  in  favor  of  such  memorials ;  but  I  most 
emphatically  deny  that  there  is  any  such  design  or  that  there 
would  be  any  such  result.  A  soldier's  monument  in  every  city, 
town  and  village  of  the  South  would  have  no  political  or  sec- 
tional significance  now.  The  interests  of  the  South  now  lie  in 
the  preservation  of  the  Union.  As  it  prospers  so  do  we.  Ta 
stir  up  sectional  strife  would  be  a  blunder  on  the  part  of  the 
South.  It  would  be  suicidal.  It  would  be  equally  so  on  the  part 
of  the  North  which  fought  four  years  to  maintain  the  Union; 
and  were  it  to  encourage  sectional  strife,  the  tendency  of  which 
is  to  weaken  and  disrupt  the  Union,  it  would  be  to  confess 
judgment,  for  it  would  contradict  the  logic  of  the  war,  and  if 
possible  demonstrate  its  absurdity. 

No  true  patriot,  no  gallant  soldier,  is  ever  found  fanning  the 
flames  of  sectional  animosity.  Only  demagogues  do  that ;  only 
men  who  pander  to  the  basest  prejudices  of  the  basest  men  in 
the  mistaken  hope  that  there  are  enough  of  such  people  to  waft 
them  into  power  on  the  wave  of  sectional  passion.  To  foment 
sectional  strife  is  not  only  to  attack  the  unity  of  the  States,  it  is 
a  crime  against  Christian  civilization — ^against  the  God  of  peace 
and  the  lover  of  concord.  I  gratefully  recognize  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  truest  friends  of  the  South  are  to  be  found  among 
Northern  statesmen  and  among  those  who  fought  against  us  in 
the  Northern  army.  You  had  a  striking  illustration  of  this,, 
when,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Jackson  statue  on  the  Capitol 
Square,  a  noble  senator  of  a  Northern  State  was  one  of  the  first 
to  lay  a  wreath  on  the  pedestal  of  the  monument.  You  hear  it 
in  the  words  of  a  gallant  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  when  he 
said,  "The  time  may  yet  be  when  the  Northern  as  well  as  the 
Southern  heart  will  throb  reverently  to  the  proud  words  upon 
the  Confederate  monument  at  Charleston,  "These  died  for  their 
State." 


[ 


Appendix.  459 

What,  then,  is  the  use  of  erecting  monuments  to  the  Confed- 
erate dead  ?  Of  what  use  to  us  is  the  Lost  Cause  ?  It  is  lost — 
emphatically  lost ;  but  does  it  follow  that  what  is  lost  should  be 
forgotten  ?  We  say  truly,  "Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead." 
Yes,  let  us  bury  all  that  is  really  dead  in  the  past ;  but  there  are 
some  things  in  the  past  that  cannot  die,  and  we  do  not  want  to 
bury  what  is  still  living.  The  Confederacy  is  dead,  but  the 
memories  of  the  men  who  died  with  and  for  it  are  not  dead. 
Their  valor,  their  endurance,  their  self-sacrifice,  their  sublime- 
devotion  to  duty — these  are  not  dead. 

The  pathetic  line  of  the  old  Roman  poet  comes  back  to  us — 
a  line  worthy  to  be  inscribed  over  the  gateway  of  every  ceme- 
tery where  the  Confederate  dead  lie  buried^ — 

"  Hi  bene  pro  patria  cum  patriaque  jacent." 

The  men  are  dead,  but  not  the  examples  of  the  men  who  with? 
the  courage  of  their  holiest  convictions  maintained,  at  the  risk 
of  fortune  and  life,  what  they  believed  to  be  their  constitutional 
rights,  with  the  world  in  arms  against  them.  The  men  are  dead, 
but  the  patriotism  that  defied  danger  and  held  life  not  dear  in 
the  defence  of  honor,  home  and  State  sovereignty,  and  which 
kindled  in  their  souls  the  quenchless  fires  of  devotion  to  liberty, 
cannot  be  wrapped  in  a  shroud,  or  screwed  down  under  a 
cofifin  lid,  or  committed  to  the  grave. 

The  republics  of  ancient  Greece  are  dead,  but  are  Marathon 
and  Salamis  and  Platsea  to  be  forgotten  because  Greece  is  living' 
Greece  no  more?  On  the  contrary,  have  they  not  been  the  in- 
spiration of  all  that  have  resisted  despotism  and  fought  for 
freedom  from  their  day  to  ours? 

Twenty-five  years  before  the  Christian  era  the  Roman  re- 
public expired  and  was  succeed  by  the  Roman  empire,  but  will 
the  world  forget  the  patriot  sages  and  soldiers  of  Rome's  noblest 
era? 

The  Commonwealth  of  England  has  perished,  but  is  not  pa- 
triotism yet  kindled  by  the  names  of  John  Hampden  and  John 
Milton  and  Harry  \^ane  and  Admiral  Blake? 

What  does  England  now  care  for  the  wars  of  the  White  and 
Red  Roses?  She  cares  this :  she  cherishes  the  memories  of  the 
men  who  illustrated  British  valor,  fortitude  and  pluck,  but  she 
has  forgotten  whether  they  belonged  to  the  house  of  York  or 
Lancaster. 

England    and    Scotland    were  once    independent    kingdoms.. 


460  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Long  and  bitter  were  the  wars  they  waged  against  each  other. 
They  are  united  now,  but  suppose  Scotland  had  never  reared 
monuments  in  honor  of  her  fallen  chieftains.  Suppose  England 
had  been  oblivious  to  the  memories  of  her  illustrious  heroes. 
Suppose  all  the  monuments  of  patriot  soldiers  had  been  reared 
on  northern  Scottish  soil,  and  none  across  the  southern  border. 
Suppose  all  the  monuments  of  ancient  valor  had  been  south  of 
the  Tweed — then  what  ?  Then  this :  the  impression  would  have 
slowly,  certainly  gained  ground  that  either  England  or  Scot- 
land had  never  produced  men  worthy  of  remembrance,  and  the 
result  would  have  been  the  demoralization,  the  degradation  of 
the  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom  which  had  failed  to  perpetuate 
the  recollection  of  the  men  whose  achievements  constituted 
what  ought  to  have  been  a  common  heritage,  and  what  would 
have  been  the  loss  of  each  would  have  been  the  loss  of  both. 

The  day  will  come  when  the  question  will  not  be  who  wore 
the  blue  or  the  gray,  but  who  was  loyal  to  duty,  who  was  daunt- 
less in  courage,  who  was  unfaltering  in  adherence  to  principle, 
who  was  sublime  in  self-sacrifice,  who  illustrated  most  splen- 
didly the  magnanimity,  the  daring,  the  chivalry  of  the  patriot 
soldier  ? 

No  nation  is  safe  or  strong  which  does  not  glory  in  the 
achievements  of  noble  ancestors.  If  sons  fail  to  cherish  the 
inspiring  memories  of  patriotic  fathers  they  will  have  no  pa- 
triotism to  bequeath  to  their  descendants.  Without  self-respect, 
without  self-reliance,  without  a  belief  in  its  own  prowess  and 
ability  to  stand  against  all  comers,  no  nation  is  fit  to  take  the 
field.  One  Englishman  once  thought  himself  a  match  for  three 
Frenchmen.  He  often  found  himself  mistaken,  but  the  fact  that 
he  thought  so  helped  him  to  be  so.  In  our  Confederate  war  the 
fact  that  with  inferior  numbers  our  troops  so  often  obtained  the 
victory  was  itself  an  inspiration  and  an  assurance  of  success. 

But  how  shall  a  State  become  proud  of  its  own  record  ?  How 
can  it  obtain  this  confidence  in  its  own  valor,  which  is  half 
the  battle?  I  answer,  by  preserving  the  memories  of  the  past. 
But  how  shall  this  be  done?  By  history?  How  few  read  his- 
tory— how  few  have  the  time  or  the  inclination.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  splendid  substitute  for  written  history.  It  is  pictorial 
history.  It  is  object  teaching.  It  is  the  appeal  of  monuments. 
Armies  are  recruited  chiefly  from  the  young  and  from  the 
workingmen  too  busy  to  read.  How  appeal  to  them  except  by 
monuments?    These  speak  to  all — learned  and  unlearned,  old 


Appendix.  461 

and  young,  professional  men  and  men  of  business,  the  merchant, 
the  mechanic  and  the  manufacturer. 

Books  are  occasionally  opened,  monuments  are  seen  every 
day,  and  the  lesson  of  that  lofty  figure  which  is  to  tower  over 
Libby  Hill  and  be  seen  from  afar  by  all  who  approach  this  city 
by  river  or  rail,  will  be  a  lesson  in  stone  and  in  metal  which  your 
school  boys  can  read  and  understand,  and  the  lesson  will  be  this : 
"Live  nobly ;  there  is  a  reward  for  patriotic  devotion  to  duty ; 
republics  are  not  ungrateful." 

I  am  in  favor  of  a  monument  to  our  great  generals.  We  have 
a  monument  to  Washington,  to  Jackson,  to  Stuart.  We  are 
going  to  have  one  for  our  Lee,  but  I  want  another  for  our  Con- 
federate private  soldier.  Who  more  worthy  of  it  than  the 
privates  who  followed  these  great  leaders  and  who  so  won  their 
admiration  that  they  could  not  find  words  adequate  to  ex- 
press it  ? 

When  Jackson  had  to  bid  farewell  to  the  Stonewall  Brigade, 
as  he  rode  slowly  toward  the  line,  the  men,  who  at  the  sight  of 
his  old  faded  cap  with  the  rim  resting  on  his  nose  and  his  chin 
in  the  air,  and  the  old  gray  coat  and  the  old  sorrel  horse,  were 
accustomed  to  shatter  the  air  with  their  cheers,  were  as  silent 
as  death.  They  knew  what  was  coming.  In  the  midst  of  the 
profound  sadness  and  silence,  Jackson,  controlling  his  emotions 
as  best  he  could,  commenced  a  formal  address ;  but  presently 
he  paused.  He  ran  his  eye  down  the  line,  as  one  of  his  biogra- 
phers says,  as  if  he  wanted  individually  to  bid  them  farewell 
man  by  man,  but  as  the  memories  of  what  they  had  suffered 
and  achieved  together  came  crowding  on  him,  the  suppressed 
emotion  surged  up  beyond  control.  Mastered  by  an  uncontrolla- 
ble impulse,  he  rose  in  his  stirrups,  threw  the  reins  on  the  neck 
of  his  horse,  with  an  electric  gesture  which  sent  a  thrill  through 
every  heart,  and,  extending  his  arms,  added  in  tones  of  deepest 
feeling,  "In  the  Army  of  the  Shenandoah  you  were  the  First 
brigade.  In  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  you  were  the  First  bri- 
gade. In  the  Second  Corps  of  the  army  you  were  the  First 
brigade.  You  are  the  First  brigade  in  the  afifections  of  your 
general,  and  I  hope  by  your  future  deeds  and  bearing  you  will 
be  handed  down  to  posterity  as  the  First  brigade  in  this  second 
war  of  independence." 

The  private  soldier !  The  men  who  were  described  by  the 
English  correspondent  of  the  London  Times  as  lean  from  fast- 
ing, with  matted  hair  and  mendicant's  rags,  yet  who  followed 


462  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  battle-flag  with  a  triumphant  joy  never  surpassed,  and  won 
victories  never  transcended ;  the  men  of  whom  Lee  said,  ''There 
is  one  attitude  in  which  I  could  never  be  ashamed  of  your  seeing 
my  men,  and  that  is  when  they  are  fighting." 

The  private  soldier !  The  men  of  whom  a  Northern  officer 
wrote,  "Their  artillery  train  looks  like  a  congregation  of  all  the 
crippled  California  emigrant  trains  that  ever  escaped  the  Co- 
manche Indians.  Their  men  are  ill-dressed,  ill  equipped — a  lot 
of  ragamuffins  that  a  man  is  ashamed  to  be  seen  among,  even 
when  he  is  a  prisoner  and  can't  help  it ;  and  yet  they  have  beaten 
us  fairly — ^beaten  us  so  easily  that  we  are  objects  of  contempt  to 
their  private  soldiers,  with  no  shirt  showing  through  the  holes 
of  their  pantaloons,  and  cartridge  boxes  tied  round  their  waists 
with  strands  of  rope." 

When  at  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor  Lee  met  Jackson  and,  lis- 
tening for  a  moment  to  the  roar  of  the  guns  growing  louder 
and  louder,  said  to  him,  "General,  that  fire  is  very  heavy.  Do 
you  think  your  men  can  stand  it?"  Jackson  answered  in  brief 
tones,  "They  can  stand  almost  anything.    They  can  stand  that." 

Yes,  we  will  give  them  a  monument.  The  scheme  is  in  good 
hands.  No  better  committee  could  be  selected  than  the  one  to 
whom  we  have  entrusted  its  management.  No  more  ardent  or 
efficient  friend  of  this  enterprise  can  be  found  than  the  honored 
Governor  of  this  commonwealth,  who  is  giving  to  it  his  fullest 
sympathy  and  his  untiring  cooperation. 

The  place  for  the  monument  is  a  good  one — the  very  best  of 
all  the  historic  hills  of  Richmond.  We  will  make  its  foundation 
firm,  its  column  high,  and  over  the  city  defended  four  years  by 
the  bravest  men  who  ever  shouldered  arms  or  charged  bayonets 
we  will  set  up  the  statue ;  and  as  the  sun  rises  over  the  Chesa- 
peake bay  and  darts  his  beams  across  the  York  river  and  the 
James,  the  first  object  to  catch  its  beams  will  be  the  burnished 
helmet  on  the  head  of  the  private  soldier,  shining  like  the  morn- 
ing star  over  the  city  of  the  living ;  and  as  the  same  sun  sinks 
to  its  bed  below  Hollywood,  the  city  of  the  dead,  its  light  will 
still  linger  like  a  halo  around  the  soldier's  statue  aloft  in  the 
air,  to  remind  us  that  glory  survives  the  grave,  and  that  when 
the  sun  of  life  goes  down  its  radiance  will  linger,  with  a  soft 
celestial  splendor,  after  all  the  rest  of  the  world  is  wrapped  in 
darkness. 


I 


I 


V. 

ADDRESS 

hi  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Richmond,  Va.,  December 
II,  1889,  the  day  appointed  by  the  Governor  for  the  Comm.emo- 
ration  of  the  Death  of  the  Hon.  fefferson  Davis. 

Somewhat  wearied,  as  I  am,  with  the  number  of  special  ser- 
vices which  have  devolved  on  me  of  late,  it  was  my  desire  and 
effort  to  be  relieved  of  the  one  now  assigned  to  me ;  but  the 
constraint  laid  on  me  to  perform  it  was  one  I  could  not  properly 
resist.  I  have  probably  been  called  to  undertake  this  office  be- 
cause I  am  one  of  the  few  pastors  in  this  city  who  resided  here 
during  the  civil  war,  and  because  circumstances  brought  me 
into  personal  association  with  the  President  of  the  conquered 
Confederacy.  I  heard  his  first  address  to  the  Richmond  people 
from  the  balcony  of  Spotswood  Hotel,  after  the  removal  of  the 
capital  from  Montgomery.  I  stood  beneath  the  ominous  clouds, 
in  the  dismal  rain  of  that  memorable  day,  the  22d  of  February, 
1862,  when,  from  the  platform  erected  near  the  Washington 
monument  in  the  Capitol  Square,  after  prayer  by  Bishop  Johns, 
he  delivered  his  inaugural  address,  in  clear,  but  gravely  modu- 
lated tones.  I  have  ridden  with  him  on  horseback  along  the 
lines  of  fortification  which  guarded  the  city.  I  have  had  expe- 
riences of  his  courtesy  in  his  house  and  in  his  office.  I  was  with 
him  in  Danville  after  the  evacuation,  until  the  surrender  at  Ap- 
pomattox Court-house ;  and  while  I  never  aspired  to  intimacy 
with  him.  my  opportunities  were  such  as  enabled  me  to  learn 
the  personal  traits  which  characterized  him  as  a  man,  as  well  as 
the  official  and  public  acts  which  marked  his  administration  and 
which  now  form  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  country. 

For  reasons  like  these  I  account  for  the  invitation  with  Avhich 
I  am  honored  by  my  brethren  and  by  my  comrades  of  Lee  Camp 
to  address  this  great  assembly  to-day. 

And  now  permit  me  to  say  a  word  with  regard  to  the  kind 
of  service  which  I  deem  appropriate  to  the  hour  and  to  the  place 
where  we  meet. 


464  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

This  is  a  memorial  service,  and  not  an  occasion  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  topics  which  would  be  appropriate  elsewhere  and  at 
another  time. 

Every  congregation  assembled  in  our  churches  in  these  South- 
ern States  to-day  forms  a  part  of  the  vast  multitude  which 
unites  in  mind  and  heart  with  the  solemn  assembly  in  New  Or- 
leans, where,  in  the  presence  of  the  dead,  the  funeral  services 
are  in  progress  at  this  hour.  There,  all  that  is  most  tender  and 
most  impressive  centres,  and  it  becomes  all  who  compose  those 
outlying  congregations  to  feel  and  act  in  sympathy  with  what 
is  now  passing  in  the  sad,  but  queenly  city  which  guards  the 
gates  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  church  draped  in  sable,  and 
where  the  bereaved  sit  beside  the  pall  with  hearts  fillled 
with  a  sorrow  which  no  outward  emblems  of  mourning  can 
express. 

If  we  place  ourselves  in  sympathy  with  the  emotions  which 
concentre  there,  and  which  radiate  to  the  wide  circumference  of 
the  most  distant  congregations  uniting  in  these  obsequies,  then 
how  evident  it  is  that  political  harangues  and  discussions  calcu- 
lated to  excite  sectional  animosities  are  utterly  inappropriate  to 
the  hour.  It  is  not  the  office  of  the  minister  of  religion  to  deal 
controversially  with  the  irritating  subjects  which  awaken  party 
strife.  It  is  his  duty  and  privilege  to  soften  asperities,  to  recon- 
cile antagonistic  elements,  to  plead  for  mutual  forbearance,  to 
urge  such  devotion  to  the  common  weal  as  to  bring  all  the  peo- 
ple, North,  South,  East,  and  West,  into  harmonious  relations 
with  each  other,  so  as  to  combine  all  the  resources  of  the  entire 
country  into  unity  of  effort  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  I  trust 
this  will  be  the  tone  and  spirit  of  all  the  addresses  made  in  the 
churches  to-day  throughout  the  South ;  and  may  I  not  hope  that 
as  there  are  no  geographical  boundaries  to  the  qualities  which 
constitute  noble  manhood,  such  as  courage,  generosity,  forti- 
tude, and  personal  honor,  there  will  be  many  in  the  Northern 
and  Western  States  who  will  be  in  sympathy  with  the  eulogies 
which  will  be  pronounced  to-day  by  the  speakers  who  hold  up 
to  view  those  characteristics  of  their  dead  chieftain  which  have 
always  commanded  the  admiration  of  right-minded  and  right- 
hearted  men  in  all  lands  and  in  all  centuries. 

The  day  is  coming  when  the  question  will  not  relate  so  much 
to  the  color  of  the  uniform,  blue  or  gray,  as  to  the  character  of 
the  men  who  wore  it ;  when  the  question  will  be,  who  were  most 
loyal  to  what  they  believed  to  be  duty,  who  were  most  dauntless 


I 


Appendix.  465 

in  dang-er,  who  most  sublime  in  self-sacrifice,  who  illustrated 
most  splendidly  the  ideal  of  the  patriot  soldier  ? 

Before  the  commencement  of  the  strife  which  ended  in  the 
dismemberment  of  the  Union,  all  men  familiar  with  the  life  of 
Mr.  Davis,  whether  as  a  cadet  at  West  Point,  as  a  soldier  in  the 
:Mexican  war,  as  the  Governor  of  his  adopted  State,  or  as  a 
member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  agree  in  regarding 
him  as  entitled  to  the  reputation  he  won  as  a  gallant  officer  and 
a  patriotic  statesman.  After  the  organization  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  whatever  conflicting  views  men  may  entertain 
with  regard  to  the  righteousness  of  the  part  he  took  in  its  forma- 
tion, or  as  to  the  wisdom  of  his  course  as  its  Chief  Magistrate, 
all  alike  admit  the  sincerity  and  the  courage  of  his  convictions, 
and  the  indomitable  resolution  with  which  he  carried  out  his 
plans,  with  a  decision  that  nothing  could  shake,  and  with  a  de- 
votion that  sought  nothing  for  self,  but  everything  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  cause  to  which  he  had  consecrated  hislife. 

This  leads  to  the  inquiry  as  to  the  qualities  and  attributes 
which  constitute  the  patriot  statesman,  the  statesman  needed  for 
all  time,  but  more  especially  for  our  own  day  and  country.  The 
opinion  has  been  recently  expressed  by  men  whose  words  have 
great  weight,  that  our  legislative  bodies  should  be  composed 
for  the  most  part  of  practical  business  men,  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  trade,  the  commerce,  and  the  financial  inter- 
ests of  the  country.  With  a  single  qualification,  no  one  will 
controvert  the  truth  of  that  statement,  but  taken  alone  it  is  an 
imperfect  enunciation  of  the  requirements  of  legislation.  Asso- 
ciated with  men  no  matter  how  conversant  with  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  country,  we  need  legislators  who  are  profound 
students  of  history,  philosophy  and  ethics;  men  who  have  had 
time  and  opportunities  for  thought  and  for  the  thorough  in- 
vestigation of  the  principles  of  government.  I  heard  Lord 
Palmerston  say  in  the  speech  he  delivered  at  his  inauguration 
as  Lord  Rector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  that  the  difiference 
between  the  statesmen  of  Great  Britain  and  France  was  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  latter  had  been  trained  only  in  the  exact 
sciences,  while  the  former  had  been  drilled  in  metaphysics  and 
moral  philosophy,  and  the  result  was,  that  while  French  legisla- 
tive assemblies  had  been  filled  with  brilliant  politicians?  the 
British  Parliament  had  been  graced  and  dignified  by  men 
of  the  stamp  of  Burke  and  Chatham  and  Fox  and  Peel  and 
Canning-. 


466  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Who  were  the  men  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  hve?  Who  wrote  the  masterly  state  papers  which  excited 
the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the  best  thinkers  of  the  old 
world?  Who  wrote  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
Constitution,  which  brought  into  union  the  independent  colo- 
nial sovereignties?  Who  built  up  our  system  of  jurisprudence, 
combining  the  merits  of  Roman  civil  law  and  English  common 
law?  All  of  them  students;  men  who,  under  the  shade  of  their 
ancestral  trees,  in  the  retirement  of  their  Southern  country 
homes,  had  spent  their  lives  in  profound  researches  into  the 
principles  upon  which  just  government  is  founded,  and  then 
were  capable  of  elaborating  and  bringing  into  successful  opera- 
tion the  wisest  form  of  government  the  world  ever  knew.  Never 
were  statesmen  of  this  type  so  much  needed  in  our  national 
councils  as  now. 

Then  I  add,  the  statesman  required  for  the  times  is  one  who 
has  the  courage  and  the  ability  to  lead  public  opinion  in  ways 
that  are  right,  instead  of  waiting  to  ascertain  the  popular  drift, 
no  matter  how  base,  that  he  may  servilely  follow  it.  Unlike  the 
popularity  hunter,  who  never  asks  what  is  just,  but  what  is 
politic,  and  then  trims  his  sails  so  as  to  catch  every  breeze  of 
public  favor,  the  upright  statesman,  with  the  deep  conviction 
that  nothing  that  is  morally  wrong  can  be  politically  right, 
steers  directly  for  the  port  of  duty  along  a  line  in  which  no  de- 
flection can  be  traced,  and  holds  his  course  in  the  very  teeth  of 
the  gale.  While  the  demagogue  dare  attempt  nothing,  no  mat- 
ter how  noble,  which  might  endanger  his  popularity,  the  patriot 
statesman,  when  assailed  by  obloquy,  is  not  greatly  troubled 
thereby,  but  calmly  waits  for  the  verdict  of  time,  the  great  vin- 
dicator. 

When  the  path  of  duty  becomes  the  path  of  danger,  the  up- 
right statesman  is  not  intimidated,  but  remains  firm  as  the  rock 
in  mid-ocean,  against  which  the  invading  waves  beat  only  to  be 
shivered  into  spray.  While  the  tricky  demagogue  spends  all  his 
energies  in  directing  the  tactics  of  a  party,  the  broad-minded 
statesman  aspires  to  build  up  a  noble  commonwealth,  and  rises 
above  all  that  is  selfish  and  mean,  because  the  ends  he  aims  at 
are  those  of  country,  God  and  truth.  Men  of  great  gifts  often 
fail  in  public  life  because  they  lack  the  moral  basis  on  which 
character  alone  can  stand.  After  all,  integrity  is  one  of  the 
strongest  of  living  forces ;  and  what  the  people  seek  when  their 
rights  are  imperilled  is  not  so  much  for  men  of  brilliant  talents 


Appendix.  467 

as  for  leaders  whose  chief  characteristics  are  untarnished  honor, 
incorruptible  honesty,  and  the  courage  to  do  right  at  any 
hazard. 

It  is  admitted  that  even  such  men  sometimes  fail  to  secure  the 
triumph  of  the  cause  for  which  they  toil  and  make  every  sacri- 
fice; but  the  very  failures  of  such  men  are  nobler  than  the 
success  of  the  unprincipled  intriguer.  Reproach,  persecution, 
misrepresentation  and  poverty,  have  often  been  the  fate  of  those 
who  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  for  the  right  and  true;  but 
they  are  not  dishonored  because  the  ignoble  do  not  appreciate 
their  character,  aims  and  efforts. 

"  Count  me  o'er  earth's  chosen  heroes;  they  were  souls  that  stood  alone; 
While  the  men  they  agonized  for,  hurled  the  contumelious  stone." 

Our  admiration  is  more  due  to  him  who  pursues  the  course 
he  thinks  right,  in  spite  of  disaster,  than  to  one  who  succeeds 
by  methods  which  reason  and  conscience  condemn.  Defeat  is 
the  discipline  which  often  trains  the  heroic  soul  to  its  noblest  de- 
velopment ;  and  when  the  conviction  comes  that  he  has  strug- 
.gled  in  vain,  and  must  now  yield  to  the  inevitable,  then  he  may, 
without  shame,  lay  down  his  armor  in  the  assurance  that  others 
will  rise  up  and  put  it  on,  and  in  God's  good  time  vindicate  the 
principles  which  must  ultimately  triumph. 

Another  of  the  lessons  we  learn  from  the  eventful  life  just 
terminated  is  the  emptiness  and  vanity  of  earthly  glory,  if  it  be 
the  only  prize  for  which  the  soul  has  contended.  'As  for  man, 
his  days  are  as  grass.  He  cometh  forth  like  a  flower ;  in  the 
morning  it  groweth  up  and  flourisheth ;  in  the  evening  it  is  cut 
down  and  withereth.  Surely  man  at  his  best  estate  is  altogether 
vanity."  Wealth,  honor,  power,  military  renown,  popularity, 
the  constituent  elements  of  what  men  call  glory,  how  evanescent 
they  are,  and  how  unsatisfactory  while  they  continue?  What 
is  earthly  glory?  It  is  the  favor  of  the  fickle  multitude,  the 
transient  homage  of  the  hour,  the  applause  of  the  populace, 
dying  away  with  the  breath  that  fills  the  air  with  its  empty 
clamor.  Oftentimes  its  most  impressive  emblem  is  the  bloody 
banner  whose  tattered  folds  bear  mournful  evidence  of  the 
price  at  which  victory  is  won.  It  is  the  mouldering  hatchment 
which  hangs  above  the  tomb  of  the  dead  warrior.  It  is  the  post- 
humous renown  which  stirs  not  one  sweet  emotion  in  the  heart 
which  lies  still  and  chill  in  the  coffin,  and  whose  music  never 
penetrates  the  dull  cold  ear  of  death.     What  is  earthly  glory? 


468  Moses  Drury  Hogb. 

Listen:  "All  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the 
flower  of  the  grass ;  the  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower  thereof 
falleth  away ;"   "the  wind  passeth  over  it  and  it  is  gone." 

We  are  told  that  when  Massillon  pronounced  one  of  those 
wonderful  discourses  which  placed  him  in  the  first  rank  of  pulpit 
orators  he  found  himself  in  a  church  surrounded  by  the  trap- 
pings and  pageants  of  a  royal  funeral.  The  church  was  not  only 
hung  with  black  drapery,  but  the  light  of  day  was  excluded, 
and  only  a  few  dim  tapers  burned  on  the  altar.  The  beauty 
and  chivalry  of  the  land  were  spread  out  before  him.  The 
members  of  the  royal  family  sat  beneath  him,  clothed  in  the 
habiliments  of  mourning.  There  was  silence — a  breathless  sus- 
pense. No  sound  broke  the  awful  stillness.  Massillon  arose. 
His  hands  were  folded  on  his  bosom ;  his  eyes  were  lifted  to 
heaven ;  utterance  seemed  impossible.  Presently  his  fixed  look 
was  unbent,  his  eye  roved  over  the  scene  where  every  pomp  was 
displayed,  where  every  trophy  was  exhibited.  That  eye  found 
no  resting  place  amid  all  this  idle  parade  and  mocking  vanity. 
At  length  it  settled  on  the  bier  on  which  lay  dead  royalty,  cov- 
ered with  a  pall.  A  sense  of  the  indescribable  nothingness  of 
man,  at  his  best  estate,  overcame  him.  His  eyes  once  more 
closed ;  his  very  breath  seemed  suspended,  until,  in  a  scarce 
audible  voice,  he  startled  the  deep  silence  with  the  words — 

"  There  is  Nothing  Great  but  God." 

To-day,  my  hearers,  we  are  warned  that  pallid  death  knocks 
with  impartial  hand  at  all  doors.  He  enters,  with  equal  free- 
dom the  dwelling  of  the  humblest  citizen  and  the  mansion  of 
senator,  sage  and  chieftain.  He  lays  peasant  and  president 
side  by  side,  to  repose  in  the  silent,  all-summoning  cemetery.  • 

"  The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour ; 

The  path  of  glory  leads  but  to  the  grave." 

"There  is  nothing  great  but  God;  there  is  nothing  solemn 
but  death ;  there  is  nothing  momentous  but  judgment." 

Finally,  every  life  which  is  not  made  a  preparation  for  the 
eternal  future  is  a  comedy,  in  folly — a  tragedy,  in  fact.  No 
matter  how  splendid  its  success,  the  life  itself  and  all  its  pos- 
sessions are  temporary.  They  are  like  the  dissolving  views  of 
the  panorama.     Pietro  de  Medici  commanded  Michael  Angelo- 


Appendix.  469 

to  fashion  a  statue  of  snow.  Think  of  such  a  man  spending  his 
time  and  splendid  talents  in  shaping  a  snow  image !  But  men 
who  devote  all  their  time  and  talents  to  temporal  things,  no  mat- 
ter how  noble,  are  modeling  and  moulding  with  snow.  "He 
builds  too  low  who  builds  beneath  the  skies."  He  who  expects 
an  enduring  portion  from  anything  lower  than  the  skies,  from 
anything  less  stable  than  the  heavens,  from  anything  less  suffi- 
cient than  God  is  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  man  with  a 
mortal  body  inhabited  by  an  immortal  spirit,  drifting  to  the 
eternal  future  without  preparation  for  it,  is  like  a  richly 
freighted  ship  sailing  round  and  round  on  an  open  sea,  bound 
to  no  port,  and  which,  by  and  by,  goes  down  in  darkness  and 
storm. 

Very  different  was  the  course  and  conduct  of  the  man  for 
whom  these  Southern  States  are  to-day  paying  the  last  sad  rites 
■of  respect  and  affection.  His  life  was  one  of  intense  occupation. 
Much  of  it  was  absorbed  with  exciting,  exacting  earthly  duties ; 
but,  in  the  midst  of  the  pressure  and  distraction  to  which  he 
was  subjected,  he  remembered  what  time  was  made  for;  he 
remembered  the  endless  life  that  follows  this  transient  life. 
Very  beautiful  was  the  testimony  of  one  of  the  most  eminent 
of  our  Southern  statesmen,  whose  own  departure  from  the 
-earth  was  both  a  tragedy  and  a  triumph,  when  he  said,  "I  knew 
Jefferson  Davis  as  I  knew  few  men.  I  have  been  near  him  in 
his  public  duties ;  I  have  seen  him  by  his  private  fireside ;  I 
have  witnessed  his  humble.  Christian  devotions,  and  I  challenge 
history  when  I  say  no  people  were  ever  led  through  a  stormy 
struggle  by  a  purer  patriot,  and  the  trials  of  public  life  never 
revealed  a  purer  or  more  beautiful  Christian  character." 

Oh !  great  is  the  contrast  between  the  hopes  and  prospects 
of  the  worldling  and  those  of  the  humble  believer.  The  Duke 
of  Marlborough,  in  his  last  illness,  was  carried  to  an  apartment 
which  contained  a  picture  of  one  of  his  great  battles.  He  gazed 
at  it  awhile,  then  exclaimed,  "Ah !  the  Duke  was  something 
then,  but  now  he  is  a  dying  man."  The  Christian  is  something 
when  he  is  dying.    "His  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God." 

The  closing  scenes  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Davis  were  marked  by 
fortitude,  by  the  gentle  courtesy  which  never  forsook  him,  and, 
above  all,  by  sublime,  though  simple,  trust  in  the  all-sufficient 
Saviour.  While  the  outward  man  was  perishing,  the  inward 
;man  was  renewed  day  by  day. 

As  the  sculptor  chips  off  the  fragments  of  marble  out  of 


470  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

which  he  is  chiseling  a  statue,  the  decrease  of  the  marble  onl)^ 
marks  the  development  of  the  statue. 

"  The  more  the  marble  wastes, 
The  more  the  statue  grows." 

So  it  is  with  the  spirit  preparing  to  take  its  fight  from  the 
decaying  vesture  of  the  flesh  to  the  place  where  it  shall  be  both 
clothed  and  crowned. 

Such  are  some  of  the  impressive  lessons  of  the  hour,  and  if 
duly  heeded,  this  solemnity,  instead  of  being  a  mere  decorous 
compliance  with  an  executive  summons,  will  be  a  preparation 
for  the  time  when  we  shall  follow  our  departed  chief,  and  take 
our  places  among  those  who  nobly  fought  and  grandly  trir 
umphed  ;  and  then,  as  now,  will  we  sing.  Glory  be  to  the  Father, 
and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost.  As  it  was  in  the  be- 
ginning, is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without  end.    Amen. 


VI. 

MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 

On  his  Fiftieth  Anniversary^  in  the  Seco7id  Presbyterian  Churchy 
Richmond^  Va.,  February  27,  1895. 

As  I  stand  in  this  pulpit  and  look  over  the  silent  throng  which 
crowds  these  pews  and  galleries  and  aisles,  I  am  reminded  that 
there  are  occasions  when  it  is  not  true  that  "out  of  the  abun- 
dance of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh."  Deep  emotion,  so  far 
from  inspiring  ready  and  fluent  utterance,  often  makes  silence 
more  natural  than  speech.  I  find  it  difficult  to  express  in  words 
the  commingled  emotions  awakened  by  this  anniversary.  I  can 
only  say  that  the  first  and  most  fervent  feeling  that  fills  my  heart 
is  one  of  gratitude  to  God  for  sparing  me  to  this  happy  hour — ■ 
gratitude  for  permitting  me  to  serve  him  for  half  a  century  in 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  and  gratitude  for  the  unbroken  har- 
mony which  has  existed  among  the  members  of  my  charge  and 
between  my  people  and  myself,  without  a  ripple  of  discord  to 
mar  it ;  gratitude  for  the  kind  regards  of  the  religious  denomi- 
nations of  this  city,  manifested  to  me  in  so  many  ways ;  and 
for  the  unity  and  brotherly  love  which  have  made  their  relations 
to  each  other  so  delightful.  It  would  be  impossible  to  enter 
upon  the  discussion  of  any  of  the  topics  appropriate  to  this  anni- 
versary without  first  tendering  my  cordial  thanks  to  the  people 
of  Richmond  for  the  splendid  reception  accorded  to  me  last 
night ;  to  the  Masonic  fraternity  for  the  gratuitous  use  of  their 
spacious  temple;  to  the  regiment  of  which  I  am  chaplain,  for 
its  attendance  in  recognition  of  my  interest  in  all  that  concerns 
its  efficiency  and  honor,  as  well  as  for  the  coming  of  the  How- 
itzers, Stuart  Horse  Guard,  and  the  Blues ;  to  Lee  Camp, 
worthy  of  the  illustrious  name  it  bears  ;  for  the  visit  of  the  vete- 
rans of  the  Soldiers'  Home ;  for  the  splendid  testimonial  of  the 
Ladies'  Hollywood  Memorial  Association ;  for  the  Beth  Ahaba's 
congratulation,  exquisitely  engrossed  on  parchment  and  richly 
framed  ;  to  the  Governor  of  the  commonwealth  and  the  resident 
members  of  his  staff,  and   for  the  many  official  letters  from 


472  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

churches  and  societies  containing  the  resolutions  adopted  by 
each,  and  presented  by  some  eminent  representative  ;  to  the  dele- 
gation from  Hoge  Academy,  Nottoway  county ;  to  my  ministe- 
rial brethren  of  every  name,  whose  congratulations  have  made 
my  heart  happier  and  my  hands  stronger  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  hallowed  work  in  which  we  are  all  engaged ;  and,  lastly,  to 
my  honored  friends,  who  have  come  from  different  parts  of  this 
State  and  from  other  States  to  grace  this  occasion  by  their  per- 
sonal participation  in  these  services. 

Had  I  chosen  to  deliver  a  regularly  constructed  sermon  to- 
night I  could  easily  have  found  more  than  one  text  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  which  I  could  have  used  as  the  foundation  of  my 
discourse.  I  might  have  selected  the  injunction  of  Moses  to  the 
people  whom  he  had  led  on  their  magnificent  march  from  the 
land  of  bondage  to  the  land  of  promise,  when  he  enjoined  them 
to  remember  all  the  way  along  which  the  Lord  their  God  had 
conducted  them,  and  then  made  "memories  of  the  way"  my 
theme;  or  I  might  have  chosen  the  impressive  act  of  Samuel 
when  he  took  a  stone  and  set  it  up  between  Mizpah  and  Shen 
and  said,  "Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us ;"  for  holy  remem- 
brance of  the  way  along  which  God  guides  his  people  excites 
devout  gratitude,  and  the  monumental  stone  bearing  the  in- 
scription, "Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us,"  is  a  perpetual 
acknowledgment  of  the  great  truth  that  all  spiritual  prosperity 
is  to  be  ascribed  to  divine  power  and  love.  I  trust  that  the  spirit 
of  both  of  these  passages  of  scripture  will  pervade  all  that  I  have 
to  say  at  this  hour,  but  the  freedom  and  familiarity  of  an  address 
rather  than  the  formality  of  a  sermon  will  enable  me  to  intro- 
duce topics  and  personal  reminiscences  of  men  and  events  which 
could  not  logically  be  deduced  from  any  text.  I  therefore  crave 
your  indulgence  and  sympathy  while  I  undertake  the  delicate 
and  difficult  task  of  trying  to  frame  a  discourse  full  of  personal 
recollections  without  egotism  or  assumption. 

If  such  a  feeling  were  to  arise  in  my  mind,  all  self-gratulation 
would  be  instantly  rebuked  by  the  remembrance  of  the  accumu- 
lated responsibility  incurred  by  a  ministry  of  fifty  years.  When 
I  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  I  have  preached  to  more  souls  now 
gone  to  their  final  account  than  are  to  be  found  in  this  great 
assembly  of  the  living  to-night;  when  I  review  the  imperfect 
manner  in  which  I  discharged  my  trust  to  those  who  are  now 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  influence ;  when  I  am  startled  by  the 
solemn   conviction  that   my  ministry   would  have  been   more 


I 


Appendix. 


473 


-useful,  both  to  the  Hving  and  the  dead,  had  I  preached  more 
faithfully,  tenderly,  lovingly — while  the  solemn  weight  of 
.thoughts  like  these  oppress  my  spirit,  be  assured  there  is  no 
room  for  assumption  or  vain  glory,  whatever  room  there  may 
be  for  penitence  and  tears.  If,  then,  I  speak  of  much  that  is 
personal,  I  beg  you  to  ascribe  it  to  the  only  purpose  I  have  in 
;so  doing,  which  is  the  better  to  enable  me  to  portray  the  history 
of  the  church  to  which  I  have  so  long  ministered,  and  to  illus- 
trate God's  providence  and  grace  in  his  dealings  with  pastor 
and  people. 

It  was  a  singular  providence  that  brought  me  to  this  city.  As 
I  drew  near  to  the  end  of  my  course  in  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary, a  little  country  church  in  Mecklenburg  county  signified 
its  wish  to  engage  me  as  its  pastor  as  soon  as  I  obtained  my 
hcense.  Its  attention  was  called  to  me,  no  doubt,  chiefly  because 
it  bore  the  name  of  both  of  my  grandfathers ;  it  was  called  the 
Lacy-Hoge  Church.  About  that  time,  however,  the  venerable 
Dr.  Plumer,  then  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  this 
city,  made  a  visit  to  Prince  Edward,  and  told  me  I  would  pro- 
bably be  invited  to  this  city  to  become  his  assistant.  I  assured 
'him  of  my  preference  for  a  small  country  charge — at  least  until 
I  gained  some  experience  and  had  composed  some  sermons. 
The  Doctor  requested  a  meeting  of  the  faculty  of  the  Theologi- 
•cal  Seminary,  explained  his  wishes  to  them,  and  sent  for  me. 
They  united  in  advising  me  to  go  to  Richmond  in  case  I  re- 
ceived an  invitation.  There  was  another  small  church  in  an- 
other county  to  which  I  had  been  recommended,  but  all  prospect 
of  my  settlement  there  was  blighted  by  an  influential  elder,  who 
frankly  told  the  people  that  he  did  not  think  me  qualified  for 
the  position.  Thus  in  two  instances  my  desire  to  become  a 
■country  pastor  was  disappointed. 

I  was  licensed  to  preach  at  a  meeting  of  presbytery  in  Lynch- 
l)urg.  The  circumstances  were  without  any  parallel.  It  was 
the  same  church  in  which  my  father  was  licensed,  and  what 
made  the  event  unique  was  the  fact  that  his  father  was  the 
Moderator  of  the  presbytery,  and  gave  the  charge  to  his  son. 
Thus  three  generations  of  the  same  family  were  connected  by 
this  strange  sequence  of  services  in  the  same  church. 

In  the  year  1844  I  was  invited  to  Richmond  by  the  session 
of  the  F"irst  Presbyterian  Church.  The  invitation  was  accepted, 
and  the  arrangement  made  by  which  I  was  to  become  the  as- 
sistant of  Dr.  Plumer  until  a  lot  could  be  purchased  and  a  small 


474  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

building  erected,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  whether  another 
congregation  could  be  collected  in  a  new  locality.  The  lot  on 
which  the  building  stands  in  which  we  are  now  gathered  was 
purchased,  a  lecture-room  built,  a  congregation  gathered,  and  on 
the  27th  of  February,  1845,  I  was  installed  as  pastor — the  Rev. 
Dr.  Leyburn  preaching  the  ordination  sermon.  Dr.  Plumer  de- 
livering the  charge  to  the  pastor,  and  the  Rev.  William  Lyon 
the  charge  to  the  people.  In  a  few  months  it  was  found  that 
the  lecture-room  was  too  small  for  the  needs  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and  plans  were  adopted  for  the  erection  of  a  more  com- 
modious house  of  worship.  Mr.  Samuel  P.  Hawes,  the  father 
of  one  of  the  officers  of  this  church,  and  myself  went  to  New 
York  to  obtain  a  model  for  the  new  church  building ;  an  archi- 
tect of  that  city  was  chosen,  who  drew  the  plans  in  accordance 
with  which  it  was  erected.  It  was  dedicated  to  the  worship  of 
Almighty  God  in  the  year  1848,  a  dedication  hymn  having  been 
composed  by  the  late  John  R.  Thompson,  and  introduced  into- 
the  hymn-book  subsequently  authorized  by  our  General  Assem- 
bly. In  the  process  of  time  the  edifice  was  found  too  small  for 
the  requirements  of  the  congregation,  and  it  was  enlarged  by 
throwing  a  transept  across  the  eastern  end,  thus  adding  two 
wings  to  the  building,  enlarging  and  beautifying  it  at  the  same 
time.  This  was  done  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner  by  Mr. 
George  Gibson,  the  only  member  of  this  church  present  at  my 
ordination  who  is  here  to-night. 

An  incident  connected  with  the  early  history  of  the  enterprise 
illustrates  the  growth  of  our  city  westward.  When  the  officers 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  proposed  to  purchase  the  lot 
on  which  this  edifice  stands,  it  was  earnestly  opposed  by  an  in- 
fluential member  on  the  ground  that  it  was  too  far  up  town,  and 
that  a  congregation  could  not  be  gathered  at  this  remote  region. 
Now  this  church  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  city — equi-distant 
from  the  Lee  statue  on  the  west  and  the  Soldiers  and  Sailors' 
monument  on  the  east. 

When  a  church  has  increased  in  wealth  and  numbers  to  a 
strength  justifying  such  enterprise,  it  is  made  still  stronger  and 
more  efficient  by  sending  out  colonies  to  establish  new  organi- 
zations. In  the  year  1882  this  church  sent  forth  its  first  colony. 
It  occupied  the  building  erected  on  west  Grace  street  near  the 
Richmond  College,  the  chief  contributor  being  the  late  Dr. 
James  McDowell,  son  of  Governor  McDowell,  of  Rockbridge 
county.     Its  first  pastor  was  the  Rev.  Peyton  Harrison  Hoge, 


Appendix.  475. 

under  whose  ministry  it  was  steadily  advancing,  until  his  re- 
moval to  Wilmington,  N.  C.  He  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev. 
A.  R.  Holderby,  now  a  happy  pastor  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  Its  third 
pastor  is  the  Rev.  J.  Calvin  Stewart,  under  whose  administration 
another  locality  has  been  chosen  and  a  new  church  edifice 
erected,  with  the  prospect  of  another  structure,  I  trust,  in  the 
near  future,  worthy  of  the  admirable  position  it  will  occupy 
and  of  the  zeal  of  its  beloved  pastor. 

The  second  colony  sent  out  from  this  church  found  its  quar- 
ters in  the  Old  Market  Hall.  It  is  now  an  organized  and  pros- 
perous church,  with  a  little  colony  of  its  own.  The  history  of 
this  enterprise  is  too  well  known  to  need  rehearsal  here.  So- 
much  has  been  already  published  about  it  in  the  newspaper  press 
all  over  the  country  that  its  name  has  become  familiar  to  thou- 
sands, and  its  story  better  known  than  that  of  many  of  the  old 
and  wealthy  churches  of  our  great  cities. 

One  of  the  peculiar  honors  with  which  this  church  has  been 
crowned  is  the  number  of  its  young  men  who  have  become 
eminent  and  successful  ministers  and  missionaries  of  the  cross. 
I  need  not  enumerate  them,  but  I  may  say  they  are  to  be  found 
occupying  conspicuous  positions  and  everywhere  recognized 
and  honored  for  their  successful  labors.  One  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  these,  of  whom  I  must  say  a  few  loving  words,, 
was  the  late  Edward  Lane,  missionary  to  Brazil.  The  literal 
history  of  his  life  would  read  like  a  romance.  He  seemed  tO' 
possess  all  the  endowments  needed  for  the  work  to  which  he 
consecrated  his  life.  It  was  one  of  noble  Christian  chivalry. 
He  died  like  a  hero,  at  the  post  of  duty.  It  was  my  privilege  to 
render  him  a  small  service  at  a  critical  time  in  his  life,  which 
he  abundantly  overpaid  by  his  loyal  affection.  He  was  my  guest 
during  his  last  visit  to  Richmond.  As  we  parted  he  told  me  that 
should  he  be  disabled  by  any  cause  from  service  in  the  mission- 
ary field,  he  would  come  back  to  me  and  connect  himself  with 
my  church  again,  and  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  the 
humblest  work  I  chose  to  assign  to  him.  Alas !  that  he  never 
came — or  rather,  blessed  be  God,  that  he  never  came,  for  when 
his  earthly  work  was  done,  he  had  a  higher  call,  and  went  up  to 
engage  in  the  nobler  service  which  God  assigns  to  those  who 
have  been  faithful  unto  death.  Four  of  the  former  members  of 
this  church,  three  of  them  women,  are  now  in  the  foreign  field. 

And  of  the  men  trained  here  for  the  ministry  in  the  home 
field,  I  may  mention  that  of  the  four  sons  of  my  ever-lamented 


.476  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

friend  and  elder,  John  B.  Martin,  three  still  survive,  honored 
and  useful  in  their  respective  charg-es. 

With  humble  and  devout  gratitude,  I  thank  God  for  making 
me  the  pastor  of  so  many  young  men  who  have  become  leaders 
in  the  sacramental  host  both  in  the  home  and  foreign  field. 

In  this  connection,  I  yield  to  the  impulse  which  constrains  me 
to  pay  an  affectionate  tribute  to  the  memory  of  two  of  the  most 
remarkable  women  that  ever  took  part  in  the  benevolent  work 
of  this  church.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  H.  Brown,  wife  of  the  late  Dr. 
William  Brown,  secretary  of  our  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society, 
had  the  capacity,  beyond  that  of  any  woman  I  ever  knew,  of 
carrying  more  things  at  one  time  in  her  mind  and  heart  and  of 
attending  to  them  all,  with  the  most  wonderful  success,  Avithout 
confusion,  without  embarrassment,  without  waste  of  time,  and 
without  forgetfulness.  There  was  no  society  organized  for  be- 
nevolent purposes  in  which  she  was  not  the  inspiration  and  the 
most  earnest  worker;  and  yet  for  twenty  years  of  physical 
weakness  there  was  probably  not  a  day  when  she  was  exempt 
from  pain.  She  assisted  her  husband  in  the  Central  Presbyte- 
rian office  all  the  forenoon  of  every  day,  visited  the  afflicted, 
the  lonely,  and  the  poor  in  my  congregation  every  afternoon, 
and  at  night  wrote  innumerable  letters  of  business  and  friend- 
ship. I  once  advised  her  to  take  every  Sunday  afternoon  for 
quiet  physical  rest  in  her  own  chamber.  "What,"  said  she,  "in 
my  room  at  the  very  hour  when  all  my  friends  are  worshiping 
in  our  church !  Oh !  no.  After  the  toils  of  the  week  and  Sun- 
day forenoon  services,^  the  worship  of  the  afternoon  g'ives  me 
my  most  delightful  repose.  I  find  my  best  refreshment  and 
invigoration  in  waiting  upon  God  at  the  second  service."  It 
was  thus  that  she  prepared  for  the  toils  of  the  secular  week 
and  for  the  heavenly  rest. 

During  the  late  war  between  the  States,  rarely  did  a  train,  an 
ambulance,  or  a  messenger  leave  this  city  for  the  lines,  that  did 
not  convey  some  parcel  of  clothing,  or  of  books,  or  of  something 
prepared  by  her  own  hands  that  might  minister  to  the  comfort 
of  her  soldier  boys  in  camp ;  or  if  these  could  not  be  sent,  then, 
remembering  how  many  a  young  man  in  his  hours  of  loneliness, 
privation,  and  home-sickness  would  be  cheered  by  letters  filled 
with  sympathy  and  encouragement  from  a  Christian  woman — 
perhaps  the  friend  of  his  mother  or  sister — she  sent,  in  numbers 
never  to  be  known,  messages  of  comfort  whose  value  can  never 
be  estimated. 

'  She  was  a  laborious  teacher  in  the  morning  Sunday-school. 


Appendix.  477 

She  died  in  Fredericksburg-,  but  it  was  every  way  fitting  that 
she  should  be  buried  in  Hollywood  Cemetery,  and  that  she 
should  be  followed  to  her  last  resting  place  by  a  great  reti- 
nue of  weeping  friends  to  whom  her  life  had  been  a  bene- 
diction. 

Another  remarkable  woman  who  lived  and  died  in  the  com- 
munion of  this  church  was  Mrs.  Jane  Schoolcraft  Howard. 
Not  one  of  those  who  daily  met  this  plain-looking,  plainly 
dressed  little  woman  on  the  streets  of  Richmond,  intent  on  some 
benevolent  errand,  would  have  dreamed  that  her  life  had  been 
one  full  of  dramatic  interest  and  strange  vicissitudes,  such  as 
fiction  sometimes  invests  with  romantic  charm. 

During  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  an  English  gentleman  of 
the  name  of  Schoolcraft,  of  distinguished  lineage  and  aristo- 
cratic bearing,  emigrated  to  America.  One  of  his  descendants 
was  Colonel  Lawrence  Schoolcraft,  an  officer  of  great  capacity 
and  courage  during  the  Revolutionary  war.  The  youngest  son 
of  this  officer  was  Henry  Rowe  Schoolcraft,  the  renowned  ex- 
plorer of  the  head  waters  of  the  Mississippi  river,  the  ethnolo- 
gist, antiquarian,  and  historian.  He  published  a  work  on  the 
Indian  tribes  of  North  America,  and  another  entitled,  "The 
Myth  of  Hiawatha."  He  gave  to  Mr.  Longfellow  the  sugges- 
tion on  which  he  founded  his  beautiful  poem  of  Hiawatha. 
While  residing  near  Lake  Superior,  Mr.  Schoolcraft  became 
acquamted  with  John  Johnston,  Esq.,  an  Irish  gentleman  of 
great  culture  and  courtly  manners,  a  kinsman  of  the  Attorney- 
General  of  Ireland.  During  Mr.  Johnston's  residence  in  the 
vicinity  of  ]\Ir.  Schoolcraft's,  he  was  attracted  by  the  great 
beauty  of  the  daughter  of  the  renowned  chief  of  the  Chippev.'a 
nation  and  married  her.  His  eldest  daughter,  Jane,  was  sent  to 
Europe  to  be  educated,  and  on  her  return  her  charms  of  person 
and  character  won  the  love  of  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  who  married 
her.  Of  the  four  children  born  to  this  pair  one  was  Jane  School- 
craft, who  became  the  wife  of  the  late  Benjamin  S.  Howard, 
who  died  last  year  at  his  old  home  in  South  Carolina.  Mrs. 
Schoolcraft,  her  mother,  through  pride  in  her  descent  from  one 
of  the  native  kings  of  the  country,  perfected  herself  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Indian  languages.  Her  daughter,  Jane,  our 
Mrs.  Howard,  assisted  her  father  in  all  of  his  literary  work, 
and  became  acquainted  with  many  of  the  distinguished  states- 
men and  scholars,  who  were  frequent  visitors  at  her  father's 
house  after  his  removal  to  Washington  citv. 


478  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Among  the  remarkable  incidents  of  her  Hfe  was  the  frequency 
with  which  she  came  near  to  the  possession  of  great  wealth 
without  obtaining  it,  and  the  grace  with  which  she  afterwards 
submitted  to  a  life  of  poverty  after  a  youth  spent  in  affluence. 
I  cannot  relate  the  history  of  the  manner  in  which  her  father 
lost  his  interest  in  a  great  domain  belonging  to  the  Indian 
princess,  her  grandmother,  through  the  trickery  of  land  agents, 
.and  which,  had  it  been  secured,  would  have  enriched  the  entire 
family.  Nor  can  I  take  time  to  speak  of  the  loss  of  another  for- 
tune which  seemed  to  be  within  her  reach.  Mrs.  Howard  was 
never  heard  to  murmur  at  these  great  reverses.  Poor  in  this 
world's  goods,  she  was  rich  in  faith  and  in  good  works. 

P'or  many  years  she  was  the  efficient  teacher  of  the  children's 
department  of  our  Sabbath-school.  She  was  the  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  the  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society,  which  she  main- 
tained in  a  state  of  the  highest  efficiency.  Mind  and  heart  were 
devoted  to  the  advancement  of  the  welfare  of  her  church,  in  all 
the  departments  of  industry  and  enterprise,  and  she  found  in  toil 
an  inexpressible  delight. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  she  rarely  referred  to  her  distin- 
guished ancestry,  even  among  her  most  intimate  friends  ;  rarely 
mentioning  the  names  of  the  eminent  literary  men  with  whom 
she  associated  in  her  youth  at  her  father's  home  in  Washington, 
and  never  complained  of  the  great  reverses  of  fortune  to  which 
she  had  been  subjected. 

A  great  audience  gathered  at  her  funeral,  and  many  were 
the  tears  shed  when  her  remains  were  carried  from  the  house 
in  which  for  thirty  years  she  had  worshipped.  It  was  a  coinci- 
dence grateful  to  many  that  the  place  of  her  burial  was  close  to 
the  grave  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Brown,  who  had  held  the  same 
■offices  which  Mrs.  Howard  subsequently  filled,  and  the  memory 
of  whose  pious  labors  is  still  cherished  with  undying  respect 
and  affection. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  men  ever  connected  with  this  church 
was  Judge  Robert  Ould.  In  early  life  he  chose  the  profession 
of  the  law,  which  he  preferred  above  all  others,  save  one,  which 
in  later  life  he  ranked  above  any  secular  calling,  and  his  choice 
was  a  noble  one.  "Our  human  laws,"  says  a  modern  writer, 
"are  but  copies,  more  or  less  perfect,  of  the  eternal  laws,  so  far 
as  we  can  read  them."  Law  has  been  called  the  perfection  of 
reason.  It  is  the  visible  impersonation  of  justice,  the  tangible 
embodiment  of  right.     Law  touches  society  at  every  point; 


Appendix.  479 

guards  property,  life,  and  character ;  it  curbs  license,  circum- 
vents fraud,  protects  the  feeble ;  honors  good  faith,  and  binds 
the  turbulent  in  chains.  It  secures  social  order,  shields  domestic 
happiness,  and  makes  national  prosperity  possible.  Such  was 
the  noble  profession  of  his  choice.  Two  of  my  barrister  neigh- 
bors and  friends,  neither  knowing  what  the  other  had  said, 
declared  to  me  that  they  regarded  Robert  Ould  as  possessed 
of  the  finest  intellectual  powers  of  any  man  in  the  common- 
wealth. 

A  great  and  eventful  change  took  place  in  his  life  soon  after 
he  became  a  regular  attendant  on  the  services  in  this  church. 
He  became  a  communicant,  and  then  a  ruling  elder.  After  his 
conversion  he  took  up  theology  as  he  would  a  new  treatise  on 
science  or  international  law,  but  with  a  reverential  interest  such 
as  no  secular  studies  could  have  awakened.  He  became  a 
teacher  of  a  Bible-class,  for  which  he  began  to  prepare  his  lec- 
tures on  Monday  morning,  lest  the  pressure  of  professional  en- 
gagements should  hinder  his  study  of  the  lesson  for  the  follow- 
ing Sabbath  at  the  close  of  the  week.  He  became  an  earnest 
student  of  polemics  and  church  government,  and  came  to  an 
unalterable  conclusion  as  to  the  scriptural  origin  of  the  creed 
and  confession  of  the  church  of  his  choice.  He  became  occa- 
sionally a  delegate  to  church  courts,  in  which  he  was  always 
heard  with  deference,  because  of  his  familiarity  with  ecclesiasti- 
cal law,  and  his  fair,  lucid,  judicial  style  of  discussion.  He  was 
a  generous  contributor  to  all  the  benevolent  enterprises  of  the 
church,  and  a  regular  attendant  upon  all  of  its  services — twice 
on  the  Sabbath,  and  once  during  the  week — even  when  failing 
health  made  his  regular  attendance  difficult  and  hazardous. 
Never  did  pastor  have  a  more  appreciative,  loyal,  loving  ally  in 
all  his  work  ;  never  did  death  deprive  one  of  a  more  trustworthy 
friend  and  efficient  helper. 

In  this  connection,  I  come  now  to  speak  of  my  relations  to 
other  churches  and  to  the  eminent  pastors  of  my  own  and  other 
denominations.  I  have  never  bounded  my  social  relations  or 
friendships  by  denominational  lines.  It  always  seemed  absurd 
to  me  to  allow  our  honest  differences  of  opinion,  with  regard 
to  forms  of  church  government  and  modes  of  worship,  to  control 
our  associations  and  intimacies  with  persons  of  kindred  tastes 
and  congenial  qualities  of  mind  and  heart. 

Only  those  who  have  had  similar  experiences  can  know  how 
much  a  young  minister  who  is  conscious  of  his  crude  and  callow 


480  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

performances  in  the  pulpit  can  be  helped  by  a  few  kind  words. 
of  encouragement.  During  the  first  year  of  my  ministry  in  this 
city,  having  to  preach  alternately  with  an  eminent  divine  like 
Dr.  Plumer,  I  was  often  depressed  when  my  time  for  conduct- 
ing the  service  came,  in  thinking  of  how  severely  I  was  taxing 
the  generous  forbearance  of  those  who  had  to  listen.  All  know 
what  a  trial  it  is  to  a  novice  to  preach  to  a  cultivated  audience, 
and  all  know  also  what  trial  it  is  to  such  an  audience  to  listen 
to  the  novice !  The  first  note  of  cheer  was  given  in  an  article 
which  appeared  in  one  of  the  daily  papers,  written,  as  I  after- 
wards learned,  by  Mr.  James  E.  Heath,  a  member  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  a  gentleman  of  cultivated  and  refined  literary 
taste.  The  next  was  an  editorial  by  Mr.  John  Hampden  Pleas- 
ants, in  the  Richmond  Whig,  who  afterwards  became  an  atten- 
dant on  my  ministry  and  a  cordial  friend.  The  last  sermon  he 
ever  heard  I  delivered  in  my  little  lecture-room. 

During  the  war  with  Alexico  a  son  of  the  Hon.  John  Minor 
Botts  died  in  that  country,  and  his  remains  were  brought  to- 
Richmond  for  interment.  At  that  day  it  was  the  custom  to 
preach  funeral  sermons,  a  custom  now  happily  abandoned,  and 
the  venerable  Dr.  Empie,  rector  of  St.  James'  Church,  hearing 
that  the  relatives  of  the  deceased,  who  were  his  parishioners, 
wished  me  to  deliver  the  discourse,  invited  me  to  occupy  his 
pulpit  that  I  might  perform  that  office ;  and  thus  my  friendship 
with  that  aged  servant  of  God,  whose  tremulous  tones  in  read- 
ing the  service  still  sounds  in  my  ears,  began.  These  were 
among  my  earliest  encouragements,  and  they  did  not  come  from 
Presbyterian  sources. 

My  most  intimate  friend  among  our  Presbyterian  divines  was 
Dr.  Thomas  Verner  Moore,  whose  name  is  still  like  fragrance 
from  a  garden  of  spices,  and  whose  distinction  it  was  to  possess- 
an  unusual  variety  of  gifts,  all  so  harmonized  as  to  produce  a 
character  of  rare  and  beautiful  symmetry. 

Next  to  him  my  most  pleasant  associations  were  with  the  ver- 
satile and  eloquent  Dr.  Duncan,  of  the  Methodist  Church ;  and 
then  later  in  years,  dear  old  Dr.  Minnigerode  became  one  of 
my  most  intimate  friends.  The  last  letter  I  ever  received  from 
him,  and  probably  one  of  the  latest  letters  of  his  life,  was  written 
from  Alexandria  on  the  20th  of  July,  1894,  and  in  its  conclusion 
he  makes  such  a  reference  to  this  anniversary  that  I  will  repro- 
duce it  here :  "I  wish,  my  dear  brother,  we  could  meet  occa- 
sionally, but  my  roaming  days  are  over,  and  I  can  do  no  more,. 


Appendix.  481 

-even  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  your  ministry  in  your  own 
■dear  church,  than  remember  you  lovingly  and  rejoice  in  all 
your  happiness  and  blessings."  He  cannot  remember  me  to- 
night, unless  the  memories  of  earth  are  perpetuated  in  heaven, 
where  there  is  no  night !  His  letter  is  written  in  a  tremulous, 
wavering  hand,  but  there  was  no  wavering  in  his  affection  for 
me,  and  no  kind  wish  for  my  welfare  which  I  did  not  return 
with  all  my  heart. 

Richmond,  for  more  than  a  century  the  social  as  well  as  politi- 
•cal  capital  of  the  commonwealth,  from  its  earliest  history  has 
been  the  home  of  men  whose  distinction  in  the  learned  profes- 
sions, or  whose  reputation  as  jurists,  patriots  and  sages,  has 
given  lustre  to  the  State  and  to  the  republic,  and  has  gained  for 
itself  a  prominence  not  accorded  many  cities  of  our  land  far  sur- 
passing it  in  wealth  and  population.  It  has  also  been  the  home  of 
a  long  line  of  eminent  ministers  of  the  gospel,  whose  piety  and 
usefulness  conferred  dignity  on  their  calling  while  they  lived, 
.and  now  that  they  have  been  removed  to  a  higher  sphere  of  ser- 
vice, we  who  survive  cherish  their  memories  with  undying 
affection  and  perpetuate  the  story  of  their  toils  and  triumphs  for 
the  study,  the  imitation,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  generations 
to  come.  Among  these,  in  addition  to  those  I  have  mentioned, 
we  hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the  cheerful  and  pious  Buch- 
anan, the  amiable  and  gifted  Blair,  the  venerable  Bishop  Moore, 
the  learned  and  eloquent  Rice,  the  fervid  John  Kerr,  and  Arm- 
strong, of  sweet,  apostolic  piety,  and  Empie,  grave,  dignified 
and  courteous,  and  Woodbridge,  the  upright  man  and  model 
pastor,  and  Norwood,  cordial,  earnest,  loyal  to  his  Lord,  and 
James  B.  Taylor,  the  holy  man  of  God,  and  Stephen  Taylor,  full 
of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  Stiles,  full  of  heroic  ardor  and 
•consecrated  enthusiasm,  and  Jeter,  famed  for  candor,  courage 
and  steadfast  devotion  to  truth,  and  Doggett,  philosophic,  ad- 
ministrative and  studious,  and  Father  Courtney,  with  the  silver 
hair  and  heart  of  love,  and  Burroughs,  many-sided,  philan- 
thropic, diligent,  and  Peterkin,  always  reminding  one  of  the 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  and  who  reclined  on  the  bosom  of  his 
Lord.  How  rich  is  our  inheritance  with  the  memories  of  these 
saintly  men  treasured  in  our  hearts ! 

In  this  connection,  among  the  most  impressive  scenes  con- 
nected with  the  hundreds  of  funerals  at  which  I  have  officiated, 
I  recall  most  vividly  all  that  occurred  when  we  gathered  in  the 
Tirst  Presbyterian  Church  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of  our  love 


482  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

to  Dr.  Plumer,  just  preceding  his  interment  in  Hollywood- 
He  was  laid,  I  might  say,  in  state — the  coffin-lid  removed,  re- 
vealing that  majestic  face  and  form.  There  we  saw  that  strange 
sad  charm  which  the  repose  of  death  gives  to  the  face  in  its- 
final  aspect  of  rest  and  peace;  the  silver  beard  covered  the 
breast  like  a  wreath  of  snow ;  every  feature  distinct  in  its 
marble  purity  and  strength,  yet  softened  as  if  by  the  gentlest 
touches  of  the  sculptor's  chisel.  Many  affecting  scenes  did  I 
witness  in  that  edifice,  standing  then  on  the  ground  where  the 
City  Hall  now  rears  its  imposing  front,  but  none  fuller  of  sol- 
emn and  tender  impressiveness  than  when  these  obsequies  were 
held  within  its  walls.  None  who  were  present  will  ever  forget 
the  hour ;  the  vast  assembly  so  hushed  and  still,  the  silent  tears 
that  fell,  the  tributes  of  affection  from  the  lips  and  hearts  of 
representatives  of  different  denominations.  My  brethren,  de- 
nominational barriers  get  very  low  in  the  presence  of  the  sainted 
dead ! 

In  this  connection,  too,  I  may  allude  to  the  event  which  stirred 
the  heart  of  all  the  city  more  deeply  than  any  other  since  the 
burning  of  the  Richmond  Theatre,  when  the  play  of  "The 
Bleeding  Nun"  was  so  quickly  followed  by  the  tragedy  of 
bleeding  hearts.  The  calamity  to  which  I  now  refer  is  oftenest 
called  the  "Capitol  disaster,"  when  sixty-five  persons  were  killed 
by  the  breaking  down  of  a  floor,  and  two  hundred  wounded,, 
many  of  them  maimed  for  life.  In  the  public  meeting  held  in 
the  Capitol  Square  immediately  after  the  catastrophe  there  was 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  testimonies  borne  to  the  supreme 
importance  of  religion  known  in  our  annals ;  for  there,  before 
the  southern  portico  of  the  Capitol,  under  the  open  sky,  were 
assembled  thousands  of  citizens,  not  only  hushed  and  reveren- 
tial, as  is  this  audience  to-night,  but  listening  to  appeals  coming 
— not  from  clergymen — but  from  members  of  the  legal  profes- 
sion, not  one  of  whom  was  then  a  church-member,  importuning 
their  hearers  to  attend  at  once  to  the  great  duties  of  repentance, 
faith,  and  preparation  for  eternity.  It  was  as  when  the  Spirit 
of  God  fell  on  Saul,  placing  him  for  the  time  among  the 
prophets,  enabling  him  to  speak  with  the  awful  tones  of  a 
prophet's  voice,  with  a  prophet's  authority  and  power.  These 
laymen,  under  the  overwhelming  influence  of  the  solemn  provi- 
dence impelling  them,  urged  those  to  whom  they  spoke  to 
humble  themselves  under  the  mighty  hand  of  God ;  to  avoid  the 
fatal  error  of  presuming  on  to-morrow,  and  at  once  to  begin  the 


Appendix.  483 

needed  preparation  for  the  eternal  future.  The  following 
Thursday  was  set  apart  for  religious  observance  in  all  the 
churches.  Sermons  on  the  Capitol  disaster  were  preached  by 
many  of  the  pastors.  What  a  spectacle  did  that  Thursday  pre- 
sent !  Had  that  public  religious  observance  been  assigned  to 
the  Sabbath,  there  would  have  been  nothing  unusual  in  the 
silence  of  the  city ;  but  on  a  week-day,  a  secular  day,  what  a 
strange  event  it  was  in  a  busy,  commercial  community,  to  find 
all  business  suspended,  all  public  offices  and  places  of  amuse- 
ment closed,  the  houses  of  God  alone  open,  and  thronged  with 
people  of  every  age  and  class ;  subdued  by  a  common  sadness, 
the  entire  population  of  the  city  bowed  irt  penitence  before  the 
Lord! 

I  have  made  these  references  to  the  Capitol  disaster  because 
of  the  illustration  it  affords  of  the  way  Divine  Providence  often 
overrules  great  calamities  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  whole 
people.  The  influence  of  that  dispensation  of  sanctified  be- 
reavement is  still  felt  in  this  city.  At  the  time  of  the  disaster  the 
dark  cloud  that  hovered  over  us  was  converted  into  a  pavilion 
for  prayer.  Its  borders  were  fringed  with  a  holy  light,  drops 
of  mercy  fell  on  the  mourning  people,  and  the  impression  then 
made  of  the  transcendent  importance  of  eternal  things  abides 
to  this  day. 

Another  memorable  event,  never  to  be  forgotten,  was  the 
evacuation  of  the  city  near  the  close  of  the  war.  It  is  not  my 
purpose  to  reproduce  the  lurid  picture  which  that  night  of  terror 
presents ;  the  thunder  of  military  wagons  over  the  stony  streets, 
the  flame  of  burning  bridges  and  warehouses,  the  deafening 
detonations  of  exploding  shells,  the  canopy  of  dense  smoke 
hanging  like  a  pall  over  the  city — ^ah !  no,  let  me  drop  the 
curtain  on  that  scene  of  desolation  and  woe,  and  turn  to  the 
consideration  of  what  more  especially  relates  to  this  present 
hour. 

When  the  Confederate  struggle  commenced,  I  became  a 
volunteer  chaplain  in  the  camp  of  instruction,  occupying  what 
are  now  called  the  Agricultural  Fair  Grounds,  without  resign- 
ing my  pastoral  charge  of  this  church.  In  order  that  I  might 
preach  to  the  soldiers  every  Sunday  afternoon.  Dr.  Moore,  then 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  occupied  my  pulpit  at 
the  same  hour  when  I  was  holding  my  service  with  the  soldiers 
in  the  camp,  and  I  officiated,  in  return  for  his  kindness,  in  his 
church  at  nisfht. 


484  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Camp  Lee.  as  it  was  called,  was  the  camp  of  instruction, 
where  newly  enlisted  regiments  were  drilled  and  equipped  for 
the  field,  some  of  them  remaining  there  for  a  few  weeks,  others 
for  several  months,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  case  might  demand. 
A  hundred  thousand  men  passed  through  that  camp  during  my 
connection  with  it.  A  hundred  thousand  men  was  a  large  nimi- 
ber  to  become  acquainted  with.  The  acquaintance  was  largely 
on  their  part,  it  is  true ;  they  all  knew  me  as  their  chaplain ;  my 
regret  is  that  I  could  not  know  ever}-  one  of  them  by  name.  I 
preached  there  once  ever\-  Sabbath,  and  oftener  during  the 
week,  visiting  the  hospitals  as  I  had  opportunity-.  I  then  learned 
what  a  fearful  destitution  of  Bibles  there  was  among  our  sol- 
diers. I  sent  to  Xashville  and  Charleston  for  as  many  as  could 
be  spared  from  those  cities,  and  made  an  appeal  to  the  A'irginia 
people  for  the  gift  of  as  many  Bibles  as  could  be  spared  from 
tlieir  own  families.  The  supply  was  not  sufficient  for  the  ever- 
increasing  demand.  On  one  occasion,  when  I  had  received  a 
box  from  the  \\'e5t,  after  my  sermon  \\-as  ended  I  stood  on  a 
caisson,  and,  with  the  Bibles  and  Testaments  before  me.  an- 
nounced that  I  was  ready  to  distribute  them.  There  was  an 
immediate  rush  of  men  with  extended  hands  for  the  precious 
volumes.  INIany  on  the  outer  verge  of  the  crowd,  fearing  the 
supply  would  be  exhausted  before  they  could  reach  me.  cried 
out,  calling  me  by  different  titles.  "Parson."  "Doctor,"  "Chap- 
lain," "save  one  for  me."  Alas  I  for  the  number  who  were  dis- 
appointed ! 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  Mrginia  Bible  Society*-  pro- 
posed that  I  should  make  a  voyage  to  England  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  a  supply  from  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  So- 
ciety-. A  voyage  to  England  is  ordinarily  an  easy  and  pleasant 
affair — I  have  made  it  many  times  :  but  then  it  was  a  ver\'  differ- 
ent matter.  I  got  ready  in  a  single  day  and  night.  I  left  Rich- 
mond in  the  dead  of  winter,  and  had  to  run  the  blockade  in 
going  from  Charleston  to  Nassau,  from  Nassau  in  a  little 
schooner  to  Cuba,  from  Cuba  to  the  Danish  Island  of  St. 
Thomas  in  a  coasting  vessel,  and  from  St.  Thomas  to  South- 
ampton in  the  Tas)}ia)i{a.  of  the  Royal  Mail  Line  from  Brazil 
to  Southampton,  thus  reaching  England  by  four  successive 
voyages. 

The  Hon.  James  M.  Mason  was  then  in  London,  awaiting  the 
recognition  of  the  Confederate  government — a  recognition  that 
never  came.    Mr.  ^lason  was  well  acquainted  with  the  Earl  of 


Appendix.  485 

Shaftesbury,  and  one  clay,  in  making  him  a  visit,  he  told  his 
Lordship  of  my  arrival,  and  of  the  purpose  of  my  coming-. 
"Ask  him  to  come  and  see  me,"  was  the  response,  "and  I  will  do 
what  I  can  to  make  his  errand  a  successful  one."  I  gladly 
availed  myself  of  the  unexpected  and  unsolicited  invitation  of 
the  president  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  He  was 
kind  enough  to  call  a  meeting,  and  on  introducing  me  courte- 
ously requested  me  to  take  time  to  state  whatever  I  might  con- 
sider interesting  in  reference  to  my  errand.  As  I  was  the  first 
and  only  person  from  the  South  who  had  addressed  that  body, 
I  could  not  complain  of  want  of  attention,  coming,  as  I  did, 
from  the  beleaguered  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  and  during  the 
most  critical  period  of  the  history  of  the  great  conflict.  The 
result  of  my  appeal  was  a  free  grant  of  ten  thousand  Bibles,  fifty 
thousand  Testaments,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  por- 
tions— that  is,  the  Psalms,  Proverbs  and  Gospels — bound  sepa- 
rately, in  glazed  covers,  with  red  edges  and  rounded  corners — • 
just  the  thing  to  put  in  the  jackets  of  the  soldiers.  The  value 
of  this  grant  was  four  thousand  pounds  (twenty  thousand  dol- 
lars), the  best  fee  I  ever  got  for  a  single  speech  ! 

I  remained  in  London  several  months,  superintending  the 
shipment  of  the  boxes  containing  these  Bibles  on  the  Confeder- 
ate blockade-runners.  Only  a  few  boxes  could  be  sent  at  a 
time,  as  all  the  space  of  these  swift  little  vessels  was  needed  for 
the  transmission  of  provisions  and  munitions  of  war.  Of 
course,  many  of  these  vessels  were  captured,  but  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  Bibles  reached  the  Confederacy.  This 
was  during  the  third  year  of  the  war;  and  I  had  my  re- 
ward on  my  return  in  visiting  the  camps  and  hospitals,  and 
in  riding  along  the  lines,  where  I  saw  so  many  of  the  men, 
waiting  to  be  called  into  battle,  reading  these  little  red-edged 
volumes. 

One  day  it  occurred  to  me  to  send  a  copy  of  these  Bibles  to 
several  of  the  great  leaders  in  our  Confederate  army,  accom- 
panied by  a  note  to  each,  explaining  that  they  were  brought 
from  England  by  the  blockade-running  vessels.  The  result  was 
deeply  gratifying  to  me,  as  I  was  rewarded  by  receiving  letters 
of  acknowledgment  (which  have  never  been  published),  and  the 
originals  having  been  carefully  preserved,  I  regard  them  as  the 
most  precious  relics  of  the  war  and  of  the  noble  men  who  wrote 
them.  The  significance  and  value  of  these  letters  consists  in  the 
tribute  they  pay  to  the  excellence  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the 


486  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

guide  of  life,  and  they  illustrate  the  devout  spirit  of  the  great 
leaders  in  our  Confederate  army.^ 

When  the  war  was  over,  and  when  the  melancholy  days  of 
reconstruction  came,  it  was  a  significant  fact  that  so  many  of 
the  Federal  officers  in  command  of  this  military  district  at- 
tended my  church.  Knowing  as  they  did  my  devotion  to  the 
Confederate  cause,  one  would  have  supposed  that  they  would 
prefer  the  ministry  of  some  one  whose  position  had  not  been  so 
pronounced.  Not  one  of  them,  so  far  as  I  know,  held  me  in  less 
respect  on  that  account.  General  Patrick  and  General  Schofield 
both  took  pews  in  my  church.  General  Patrick  and  myself  had 
some  candid  discussions  about  the  war,  but  they  never  inter- 
fered with  our  pleasant  intercourse,  though  he  told  me  one  day 
that  it  grieved  him  to  find  me  so  inflexible.  In  a  family  afflic- 
tion sustained  during  his  administration,  it  would  not  have 
been  possible  for  any  one  to  have  shown  me  more  sympathy  and 
considerate  kindness.  We  never  came  any  nearer  to  agreement 
on  one  subject,  but  we  became  fast  friends,  notwithstanding. 

My  personal  relations  with  General  Schofield  were  also  both 
harmonious  and  happy,  and  I  cherish  a  lively  remembrance  of 
the  assurance  he  gave  me  of  his  personal  regard  when  he  came 
to  bid  me  farewell  on  being  relieved  of  his  command  in  this 
district. 

I  cannot  forget  that  I  am  delivering  an  historic  address, 
which,  with  all  its  demerits,  will  go  on  the  permanent  records  of 
this  church,  and  be  referred  to  when  its  hundredth  anniversary 
shall  come.  Your  descendants  will  wish  to  know  the  materials 
of  which  it  was  composed,  the  character  of  the  congregations 
gathered  at  its  services,  the  kind  of  officers  that  managed  its 
afifairs,  temporal  and  spiritual,  and  the  causes  of  whatever  mea- 
sure of  prosperity  it  attained. 

I  will,  therefore,  in  the  briefest  way,  leave  as  a  legacy  to  those 
who  care  to  inherit  it  in  after  times,  these  statements : 

1.  It  was  a  church  which  for  fifty  years  had  no  feuds  or  fac- 
tions in  it ;  a  church  that  had  no  disturbing  waves  on  the  tran- 
quil current  of  its  corporate  life. 

2.  Its  officers  were  men  who  were  elected  because  those  who 
called  them  to  bear  rule  believed  them  to  be  men  of  sincere  piety 
and  consecrated  lives.     They  were  men  of  good  repute  in  the 

^  At  this  point  Rev.  Dr.  Kerr  read  the  letters  that  are  printed  on 
pp.  196,  197. 


Appendix.  487 

community,  entitled  to  confidence  and  respect,  because  of  their 
intelligence,  education  and  social  standing.  From  the  time  of  its 
•organization  there  was  always  wonderful  harmony  in  the  body 
of  men  forming  what  we  call  the  church  session,  composed  of 
the  pastor  and  ruling  elders;  never  having  had  a  dissension 
among  them,  but  always  agreeing  in  the  measures  adopted  for 
the  promotion  of  the  peace,  the  purity  and  prosperity  of  the 
church  entrusted  to  their  care. 

3.  The  pastor  was  never  hampered  or  interfered  with  in  his 
special  department  of  service,  but  treated  with  a  generous  confi- 
dence that  left  him  free  to  make  such  disposition  of  his  time  of 
rest  and  of  labor  as  best  suited  his  own  health  and  comfort,  and 
to  conduct  the  services  of  the  church  in  the  w^y  he  thought  most 
conducive  to  its  spiritual  advantage. 

4.  The  deacons  and  board  of  finance,  having  charge  of  the 
temporal  affairs  of  the  church,  always  gave  to  it  their  time, 
their  generous  support,  and  their  cooperation  in  all  the  matters 
by  which  its  outward  and  material  prosperity  might  be  secured 
and  advanced. 

5.  The  female  members  of  the  church  were  characterized  by 
their  intelligent  and  zealous  and  hearty  devotion  to  the  work 
of  the  different  societies  organized  among  them  for  benevolent 
purposes  of  every  kind,  and  no  other  agency  has  accomplished 
more  for  the  prosperity  of  this  church  or  for  the  great  enter- 
prises of  Christian  philanthropy,  by  which  the  world  is  benefited 
and  blessed. 

One  of  the  advantages  I  have  enjoyed — one  which  my  cleri- 
cal brethren  will  appreciate — has  been  that,  in  the  congregations 
to  which  I  have  ministered  during  all  these  years  there  has  been 
such  a  large  proportion  of  educated  men,  many  of  them  con- 
spicuously eminent  and  distinguished  in  their  respective  profes- 
sions. 

Among  these  I  may  enumerate  the  judges  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals  and  of  the  Federal  courts ;  physicians  of  national  re- 
nown ;  lawyers  whose  genius  and  learning  gave  them  wide- 
spread and  deserved  celebrity ;  nearly  all  of  the  governors  of 
our  commonwealth  since  the  year  1848;  editors  whose  pens 
illuminated  their  columns,  and  whose  ability  and  fairness  in 
discussing  public  questions  invested  them  with  an  influence  that 
was  felt  all  over  the  Union,  and  many  successful  teachers  and 
professors  in  our  schools  and  colleges. 

Chief  Justice  Chase,  though  belonging  to  another  denomina- 


488  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

tion,  regularly  attended  the  services  of  this  church,  and  the  last 
sermon  he  heard  was  in  one  of  the  pews  immediately  before  me. 
During  the  war  our  great  military  leaders  often  worshipped, 
here,  as  well  as  the  secretaries  in  the  different  departments  of 
the  Confederate  government. 

This  was  never  called  "The  Church  of  the  Strangers,"  but  it 
is  the  church  in  which  thousands  of  strangers,  spending  a  Sab- 
bath in  Richmond,  have  found  a  welcome,  thus  vastly  increasing 
the  number  of  those  to  whom  it  had  been  my  privilege  to  pro- 
claim the  great  truths  of  the  divine  word. 

It  was  my  purpose  to  conclude  this  address  with  a  somewhat 
extended  reference  to  what  I  hope  I  have  gained  as  a  pastor  by" 
my  frequent  visits  to  the  Old  World,  but  I  have  more  than  ex- 
hausted the  time  allotted  to  this  service.  Foreign  travel,  not  for 
the  mere  gratification  of  curiosity,  but  for  the  study  of  institu- 
tions, race  diversities,  schools  of  art,  modes  of  worship,  and  the 
influence  of  different  religions  on  practical  morality ;  all  this- 
may  become  an  important  part  of  a  minister's  education  and 
preparation  for  the  pulpit.  This  is  especially  true  of  travel  in 
Oriental  lands,  and,  above  all,  in  Palestine. 

My  ever-to-be-lamented  friend,  the  late  Dr.  Henry  C.  Alexan- 
der, once  told  me  that  when  lecturing  to  his  class  in  the  Theolog- 
ical Seminary,  when  he  came  to  speak  of  memorable  places  in  the 
Holy  Land,  or  when  he  attempted  to  trace  the  journeys  of  our 
Lord,  he  sometimes  felt  like  abruptly  leaving  the  lecture-room 
and  taking  the  first  train  for  New  York,  that  he  might  embark 
for  Palestine,  and  explore  the  country  personally,  so  that  he 
might  not  thereafter  have  to  get  his  information  from  books, 
that  others  had  written,  making  it  necessary  to  go  before  his 
class  with  second-hand  knowledge,  but  that  by  personal  explo- 
ration of  the  land  he  might  learn  for  himself  what  he  had  to 
teach  others. 

There  are  many  who  have  a  similar  yearning ;  but  let  me  say 
for  the  comfort  of  those  who  can  never  hope  to  enjoy  a  personal' 
inspection  of  the  land  where  the  Bible  was  written,  and  where 
their  Lord  was  born,  that  they  may  console  themselves  some- 
what for  the  want  of  actual  sight  by  the  remembrance  of  that — 

"  Faith  still  has  its  Olivet, 
And  love  its  Galilee," 

for  those  who  never  get  a  glimpse  of  either.     I  say,  console 
themselves  somewhat,  for  it  is  unquestionably  a  privilege  ta 


Appendix.  489' 

"see  the  goodly  land  that  is  beyond  Jordan,"  and  to  walk  over 
the  acres  once  trodden  by  the  feet  which  were  "nailed  for  our 
advantage  to  the  bitter  cross." 

I  can  never  forget  the  thrill  experienced  on  the  bright  morn- 
ing when  from  the  deck  of  the  steamer  I  caught  sight  of  the 
dim  outlines  of  Mount  Carmel,  and  the  blue  hills  of  Judea,  and 
the  promontory  on  which  Jaffa  stands,  and  the  low-lying  coast 
fringed  with  yellow  sand,  and  when  the  irrepressible  exclama- 
tion came,  "There  is  Palestine,  at  last!" 

Hundreds  of  times  my  memories  of  scenes,  events  or  expe- 
riences in  that  land  have  influenced  trains  of  thought  in  my  ser- 
mons or  given  me  confidence  in  speaking  of  its  physical  aspects 
and  sacred  localities.  My  Oriental  tour,  made  possible  and 
pleasant  by  the  dear  friends  who  accompanied  me — Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Pemberton — took  in  the  cities  of  Alexandria,  Cairo,  Jeru- 
salem, Beyrout,  Damascus,  the  ruins  of  Baalbek,  Tyre,  Sidon 
and  Ephesus,  and  the  cities  of  Rhodes,  Smyrna  and  Constanti- 
nople. 

It  is  no  small  advantage,  either,  to  have  had  the  opportunity 
of  hearing  the  great  divines  in  the  chief  cities  of  Europe  and  in 
the  British  Isles. 

Some  of  you  have  asked  me  to  give  you  my  recollections  of 
those  whom  I  have  heard  preach  and  with  some  of  whom  I  be- 
came acquainted.  Three  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  were 
Drs.  Caesar  Malan,  of  Geneva ;  Bersier,  of  Paris,  and  Cook,  the 
great  polemic,  of  Belfast. 

Several  times  I  heard  Dean  Stanley  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
One  day,  in  speaking  with  the  Dean  of  a  visit  I  was  about  to 
make  to  Scotland,  he  said,  "If  you  have  never  heard  Dr.  Mc- 
Gregor, of  St.  Cuthbert's,  in  Edinburgh,  be  sure  to  hear  him 
this  time,  for  I  regard  him  as  the  most  eloquent  divine  in 
Great  Britain."  I  heard  him  during  that  visit,  and  was  not  dis- 
appointed. But  for  Dean  Stanley's  well-known  freedom  from 
denominational  bias  in  his  estimate  of  men,  I  might  have  been 
surprised  at  his  eulogium  on  a  Presbyterian  divine.  I  asked 
him  whom  he  regarded  as  the  most  eloquent  preacher  in  the 
Church  of  England.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation,  he  an- 
swered, "Dr.  Magee,  Bishop  of  Peterborough." 

I  also  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  Maurice,  Liddon,  Far- 
rar,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Dr.  Tait ;  and  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  Gumming,  Candlish,  and  James  Hamil- 
ton, of  Regent  Square,  and  A.  H.  K.  Boyd,  author  of  Recrea- 
tions and  Graver  Hours  of  a  Country  Parson. 


490  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

During  my  visits  abroad,  covering  a  period  of  thirty  years,  I 
•often  heard  Spurgeon,  and  always  with  the  greatest  dehght,  and 
once  the  fervid  and  eloquent  Punshon,  of  the  Wesleyan  Church. 

I  have  now  enumerated  the  most  eminent  teachers  in  what  I 
tried  to  make  my  theological  school  in  the  Old  World,  most  of 
whom  have  entered  on  their  eternal  rest  and  reward. 

I  have  never  been  in  any  city  where  the  average  standard  of 
ministerial  merit  was  higher  than  in  Richmond,  and  never  one 
where  pastors  and  people  lived  and  labored  together  in  more 
delightful  harmony. 

This  church,  I  am  grateful  to  say,  has  been  a  sort  of  religious 
^exchange  for  nearly  half  a  century.  At  our  afternoon  meet- 
ings, especially,  all  denominations  have  met  and  mingled.  The 
ever-increasing  manifestations  of  regard  on  the  part  of  my  min- 
isterial brethren  to  me  is  a  source  of  the  purest  happiness ;  and 
yet  had  I  purchased  it  by  the  sacrifice,  or  even  the  compromise 
of  any  truth  of  revelation,  whether  of  doctrine,  church  govern- 
ment, or  modes  of  worship,  I  would  have  purchased  it  at  a  cost 
which  would  have  made  me  bankrupt  forever.  "Whether  it  be 
right  in  the  sight  of  God"  must  ever  be  the  minister's  great 
inquiry.  Whatever  may  be  the  fluctuations  of  public  opinion, 
whatever  the  clamoring  voice  of  the  people,  whatever  the  revo- 
lutions in  creeds  and  theories  of  inspiration,  the  minister  must 
listen  to  one  voice  alone  as  finally  authoritative.  When  the  sea 
is  agitated  with  storms  the  waves  make  a  great  tumult ;  but 
when  the  voice  of  thunder  comes  rolling  across  the  storm,  then 
all  the  din  of  the  waters  is  hushed  by  that  mightier  voice,  and  so 
when  God  speaks  the  response  must  ever  be,  "Speak,  Lord,  thy 
servant  heareth."  "It  is  thine  to  command  ;  it  is  mine  to  obey." 
But  I  have  ever  believed  that  the  highest  loyalty  to  truth  and 
duty  is  consistent  with  the  sweetest  charity — the  charity  that  is 
the  crown  and  flower  of  all  the  graces.  Conscience  itself  sees 
the  truth  more  clearly  in  an  atmosphere  of  love.  At  my  forty- 
fifth  anniversary  the  bishop  of  one  of  our  Virginia  dioceses  was 
kind  enough  to  say  that  the  harmony  between  our  churches  was 
due  in  a  measure  to  the  afternoon  services  of  this  church,  and 
that  the  influence  of  its  pastor  had  helped  to  educate  our  people 
in  the  great  principles  of  practical  Christian  unity.  If  I  have 
contributed  at  all  to  this  result,  I  am  profoundly  grateful  to  the 
great  author  of  peace  and  lover  of  concord,  and  to  His  name  be 
the  praise. 

And  now,  my  friends,  this  memorial  service  is  ended.    How 


Appendix,  491 

•can  I  sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  to  the  thousands  who 
have  come  to  celebrate  this  golden  wedding  with  such  una- 
nimity and  cordiality?  I  call  it  my  golden  wedding,  because 
fifty  years  ago  I  was  united  in  holy  bonds  with  this  church.  I 
was  then  in  the  springtime  of  life,  hopeful  and  expectant.  It 
was  a  spring  followed  by  a  glowing  summer.  The  summer  has 
been  succeeded  by  a  golden  autumn,  enriched  by  the  fruits  of  the 
divine  favor,  all  the  more  precious  because  all  unmerited.  Since 
the  first  year  of  my  betrothal  to  this  church  I  have  seen  many 
and  great  changes — changes  in  the  church,  changes  in  the  city, 
changes  in  the  country,  and  in  the  world ;  but  there  is  one 
chang"e  which  I  never  saw — I  have  seen  no  change  in  the 
abounding  love  and  care  of  One  who  is  "the  same  yesterday, 
to-day  and  forever."  I  stand  here  to  testify,  as  I  never  could  so 
gratefully  before,  that  amidst  all  the  vicissitudes  of  mortal  life, 
"His  loving  kindness  changes  not!" 

And  now,  in  the  possession  of  a  common  faith  in  one  Lord, 
and  in  the  hope  of  one  heaven  of  harmony  and  love,  let  us 
ascribe  to  Him,  as  is  most  due,  all  honor  and  blessing  and  glory 
.evermore.     Amen. 


VII. 
PRAYERS. 


At  the  Memorial  Mass-meeting  in  the  Capitol  Square 
After  the  "Capitol  Disaster/'  April  29,  1870. 

With  lowly  reverence  of  spirit,  and  hearts  filled  with  sadness 
and  awe,  we  come  into  Thy  presence,  O  God,  most  high  and 
holy.  We  come  to  humble  ourselves  under  Thy  mighty  hand ; 
to  acknowledge  that  clouds  and  darkness  surround  Thee;  that 
we  cannot  measure  the  depths  of  Thy  infinite  decrees,  or  fathom 
the  wisdom  of  Thy  inscrutable  providences. 

Enable  us  then  to  feel  our  helplessness,  our  ignorance,  our 
frailty.  When  we  cannot  explain  the  reasons  of  Thy  dispensa- 
tions, may  we  be  silent ;  when  we  cannot  comprehend,  may  we 
adore ! 

Once  more,  O  Lord,  the  solemn  voice  of  Thy  providence  unites 
with  the  voice  of  Thy  word  to  admonish  us  of  the  transitory 
nature  of  all  earthly  good.  In  the  sudden  and  crushing  calam- 
ity which  has  visited  us  Thou  hast  sent  bereavement  not  only 
upon  many  households,  but  upon  this  whole  community — upon 
our  entire  commonwealth ;  and  while  Thou  art  teaching  us  so 
impressively  that  here  nothing  is  secure,  nothing  permanent, 
help  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  to  look  away  from  earth,  with  its  un- 
substantial and  dissolving  scenes,  to  the  world  whose  joy  fades 
not,  whose  treasures  perish  not,  and  whose  inhabitants,  freed 
from  sorrow  and  pain,  enjoy  a  repose  which  is  unbroken  and 
eternal. 

In  Thee,  O  merciful  Father,  all  the  fountains  of  consolation 
are  to  be  found.  Thou  canst  help  when  all  other  resources  fail, 
and  therefore  we  come  to  Thee,  bearing  in  the  arms  of  our  faith 
and  love  and  Christian  sympathy  those  who  have  been  so  sorely 
smitten  and  afflicted  by  this  calamity. 

Lord,  look  in  pity  upon  those  over  whose  homes  the  shadow 
of  death  has  swept,  and  whose  hearts,  because  of  fresh  bereave- 
ment, are  like  open  graves ;  and  as  angels  of  old  descended  into« 


Appendix.  493 

the  empty  sepulchre,  so  may  the  angels  of  mercy  and  consola- 
tion come  into  these  yearning  hearts,  filling  them  with  heaven's 
own  peace. 

Behold,  O  God,  in  all  the  plentitude  of  thy  compassion,  be- 
reaved parents  and  heart-broken  wives,  and  mourning  children, 
and  desolate  relatives  and  friends,  and  magnify  the  riches  of 
Thy  grace  in  imparting  to  them  consolation  equal  to  the  great- 
ness of  their  grief,  in  manifesting  Thyself  to  them  as  their  very 
present  help  in  time  of  trouble,  and  as  their  tender  and  pitying 
Father,  chastising  not  in  anger,  but  in  love. 

And  while  we  pray  for  those  who  weep  over  the  dead,  we 
remember  those  who  weep  around  the  couches  of  the  living, 
now  lying  wounded  and  bruised,  while  those  who  love  them, 
Avith  speechless  solicitude,  await  the  issue.  Lord,  we  beseech 
Thee,  add  not  to  the  long  catalogue  of  the  bereaved — spare 
useful  lives ;  raise  up  those  who  are  bowed  down ;  bless  the 
remedies  used  for  their  restoration,  and  grant  that  in  the  land 
of  the  living  they  may  long  walk  before  the  Lord,  praising  and 
glorifying  him. 

Our  Father,  in  the  midst  of  our  griefs  and  tears,  we  bless  Thee 
for  the  many  drops  of  mercy  mingled  in  our  bitter  cup.  We 
thank  Thee  for  the  escape  of  so  many  who  were  exposed  to  a 
common  danger  and  death. 

How  adorable  in  many  individual  instances  were  Thy  inter- 
positions. May  all  those  thus  wonderfully  rescued  acknowledge 
thy  providential  hand  in  their  deliverance,  and  feel  the  infinite 
propriety  which  evermore  must  constrain  them  to  devote  their 
spared  lives  to  God,  the  kind  preserver,  and  to  devote  all  their 
days  to  His  service  and  glory ! 

And  now  we  beseech  thee,  O  God,  may  the  solemn  lessons  of 
this  providence  be  deeply  impressed  upon  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  our  whole  people,  especially  during  this  week,  which  is  yet 
to  witness  so  many  scenes  of  sadness  as  mourners  go  through 
our  streets  following  one,  and  another,  and  another  of  the  loved 
and  lost  to  the  place  appointed  for  all  the  living ! 

So  teach  us  to  number  our  days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts 
unto  wisdom ;  teach  us  to  live  not  only  in  expectation  of  death, 
but  in  preparation  for  it,  so  that  whether  the  silver  cord  be  sud- 
denly loosened  and  the  golden  bowl  unexpectedly  broken,  or 
whether  our  change  shall  come  with  long  premonition,  it  may 
find  us  prepared,  with  our  peace  made  with  God,  in  perfect 
charity  with  all  mankind,  with  our  souls  safe  in  the  hands  of 


494  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

their  Redeemer  and  ready  to  enter  upon  eternal  life  and  bless- 
ings. 

And  unto  God,  most  high,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  will 
we  give  the  glory  evermore.    Amen. 


At  the  Re-interment  of  Confederate  Soldiers  in  Holly- 
wood, May  29,  1873. 

O  God,  who  liveth  and  reigneth  evermore,  and  with  whom 
do  live  and  reign  in  glory  the  spirits  of  all  those  who  have  de- 
parted in  the  faith — in  the  midst  of  the  grief  which  oppresses 
us,  we  bless  Thee  that  we  are  permitted  to  perform  the  tender 
and  solemn  offices  of  this  hour. 

We  thank  Thee  that  we  have  been  permitted  to  bring  back 
from  their  graves  among  strangers  all  that  is  mortal  of  our  sons- 
and  brothers,  and  that  we  have  now  laid  them  down  on  the 
bosom  of  their  Mother,  to  be  enfolded  in  her  embrace,  and  there 
to  find  their  desired  rest. 

We  thank  Thee  that,  surrounded  by  their  former  comrades  in, 
arms,  they  now  sleep  where  those  who  loved  them  while  living, 
and  who  will  cherish  their  memories  evermore,  can  come  to 
weep  over  their  graves,  and  to  scatter  the  flowers  which  speak 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  just  and  of  the  land  where  eternal 
summer  reigns. 

O  God,  merciful  and  gracious !  in  the  plentitude  of  Thy  pity 
remember  and  comfort  those  whose  grief  is  awakened  afresh  by 
this  sad  scene,  and  may  mourning  parents  and  bereaved  wives 
and  sorrowing  sisters  and  children  made  orphans  all  find  in 
thee  their  strength,  support  and  consolation.  In  this  conse- 
crated place  may  memory  come  to  embalm  the  names  of  the 
departed,  and  love  to  bedew  the  turf  which  wraps  their  clay 
with  her  fondest  tears,  and  may  hope,  animated  by  noble  ex- 
ample, here  derive  inspiration  to  new  sacrifice  for  liberty  and 
right,  and  be  enabled  to  anticipate  the  day  when  freedom 
founded  on  justice,  and  when  religion  poire  and  undefiled,  shall 
make  our  own  land  happy  and  fill  the  world  with  peace ! 

Bless,  we  beseech  Thee,  the  officers  and  men  who  survive  the 
conflicts  in  which  their  comrades  fell,  and  deeply  engrave  upon 
the  hearts  of  these  young  soldiers,  and  of  all  the  young  men  of 
our  commonwealth,  the  remembrance  of  the  patriotic  valor,  the 


Appendix.  495 

loyalty  to  truth,  to  duty  and  to  God  which  characterized  the 
heroes  around  whose  remains  we  weep,  and  who  surrendered 
only  to  the  last  enemy — Death. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  giver  of  all  good,  grant  us,  we 
entreat  Thee,  Thy  benediction  to  the  great  multitude  assembled 
here;  and  may  all  who  now  throng  this  silent  and  shadowy 
cemetery,  where  so  many  of  our  loved  ones  already  repose,  be 
prepared,  by  Thy  grace,  for  the  time  when  they  shall  pass  over 
the  river  and  rest  under  the  shade  of  the  trees.  Through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


At  the  Unveiling  of  the  Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Monu- 
ment, LiBBY  Hill,  May  30,  1894. 

Almighty  God,  we  inaugurate  this  impressive  service  with 
the  reverential  and  adoring  homage  which  we  pay  to  Thee,  the 
greatest  and  best  of  beings,  the  high  and  mighty  Ruler  of  the 
universe,  God  over  all,  blessed  for  evermore. 

From  this  hushed  and  silent  throng  may  there  arise,  as  from 
one  heart,  the  devout,  acknowledgment  of  our  dependence  on 
Thee  for  all  that  exalts  and  ennobles  life ;  for  all  that  can  give 
sacred ness  to  this  solemnity ;  for  all  that  can  fill  the  future  with 
glad  and  grateful  recollections  of  this  day,  consecrated  to  all 
that  can  give  inspiration  to  the  purest  and  sublimest  patriotism. 

We  come  to  thank  God  for  the  illustrious  commanders,  whose- 
knightly  valor  and  supreme  devotion  to  duty  won  for  them  un- 
fading renown.  We  come  to  crown  with  the  same  laurels  the 
patriotic  private  in  the  ranks,  to  whose  splendid  courage  our 
great  leaders  ascribed,  unto  God,  all  their  success,  and  without 
whose  heroic  aid  no  commander  could  have  won  the  place  as- 
signed to  him  in  the  Pantheon  of  our  Confederate  glory. 

They  lie  in  lowly  graves  and  the  cause  to  which  they  gave 
their  lives  is  lost,  but  above  their  dust  uprises  this  enduring 
column  to  testify  that  their  memories  are  not  lost,  and  high 
above  these  lofty  hills  it  towers  to  tell  to  coming  ages  our  love 
for  the  private  soldier,  who  fell  in  defence  of  constitutional  lib- 
erty on  the  land,  and  for  the  gallant  sailor  who  fringed  his 
country's  flag  with  glory  on  the  sea ! 

We  rear  this  shaft  of  stone  ;  we  unroll  the  historic  page ;  each 
shall  be  the  guardian  of  our  Confederate  story.    We  print  it  orv 


496  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

the  page,  we  carve  it  on  the  column  in  letters  imperishable  and 
luminous  evermore. 

Great  God,  author  of  peace  and  lover  of  concord,  we  would 
rear  no  monument  to  perpetuate  resentment,  or  unavailing  re- 
gret, or  fraternal  discord,  but  we  would  proclaim  to  the  world 
that  only  as  we  maintain  inviolate  the  rights  of  the  States  can  we 
perpetuate  an  indestructible  union  of  the  States — a  union 
founded  on  justice,  constitutional  law,  and  fraternal  affection. 

O  Thou,  who  art  full  of  pity  for  the  bereaved,  remember  us 
in  our  freshly  awakened  sorrow,  as  we  pay  this  last  sad  tribute 
to  our  sons  who  left  our  homes  to  return  no  more,  and  who  died 
in  defence  of  all  that  was  to  them  most  dear,  committing  their 
souls  to  God,  and  their  memories  to  us,  who  survive  them. 
God  helping  us,  we  will  be  faithful  to  the  sacred  trust,  we  will 
enshrine  them  anew  in  our  hearts,  we  will  celebrate  their  deeds 
in  sweetest  song  as  long  as  the  winds  blow  and  waters  flow,  as 
long  as  virtue  and  valor  enkindle  admiration  in  all  magnanimous 
souls. 

O  Thou,  who  hast  taught  us  to  rejoice  with  those  who  rejoice 
and  to  weep  with  those  who  weep,  our  commonwealth  erects 
this  monument,  not  for  herself  alone,  but  for  all  her  sister  States, 
whose  gallant  sons  together  locked  their  shields  and  together 
fell  on  the  bloody  front  of  battle.  Beneath  the  same  soil  their 
commingled  ashes  rest;  beneath  the  same  sky,  bending  over 
them  like  the  hollow  of  Thy  guardian  hand,  they  repose.  With 
a  veneration  too  high  for  words,  with  a  tenderness  too  deep 
for  tears,  we  consecrate  this  pillar  to  our  unending  love,  and  to 
their  eternal  fame. 

Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  from  everlasting  to  ever- 
lasting. Blessed  be  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And  let  all  the  people  say,  Amen. 


At  the  Re-interment  of  President  Davis,  May  30,  1893. 

O  God,  most  high,  most  holy,  most  merciful,  with  lowly  rev- 
erence of  spirit  and  with  hearts  subdued  by  the  hallowed  mem- 
ories of  the  past  and  the  tender  offices  of  the  hour,  we  invoke 
Thy  gracious  presence  and  benediction. 

Hear  our  prayer,  O  Lord ;  give  ear  unto  our  cry.  Hold  not 
Thy  peace  at  our  tears,  for  we  are  strangers  with  Thee  and  so- 
journers, as  all  our  fathers  were. 


Appendix.  497 

Beneath  these  quiet  skies,  which  bend  over  us  as  the  hollow 
of  Thy  sheltering  hand,  we  gather  in  this  consecrated  place. 
Around  us  rest  all  that  is  mortal  of  patriot  sages  and  soldiers, 
whose  virtue  and  valor  gave  lustre  to  our  historic  annals,  and 
who  at  the  call  of  duty,  having  consecrated  themselves  to  the 
toils  allotted  to  them,  died,  committing  their  souls  to  God  and 
their  memories  to  us  who  survive  them.  By  Thy  help,  Lord  God 
of  truth  and  justice,  we  will  be  faithful  to  our  trust.  We  will 
perpetuate  the  story  of  all  who,  by  disinterested  service  and 
heroic  sacrifice,  struggled  to  maintain  the  empire  of  principle  in 
the  world,  and  who,  with  honor  stainless  and  conscience  in- 
violate, fulfilled  their  task.  Now  numbered  among  the  im- 
mortal dead,  they  still  live,  enshrined  in  the  souls  of  those 
who  love  them  all  the  more  for  what  they  suffered  and  who 
cherish  their  memories  with  undying  devotion. 

Almighty  God,  if  in  Thine  overruling  providence  this  should 
be  the  last  scene  in  the  uncompleted  drama  of  our  Confederate 
history — so  replete  with  mournful  yet  ineffable  glory — may 
the  curtain  fall  amid  the  tears  of  men  too  brave  ever  to  murmur 
and  too  loyal  to  the  memories  of  the  past  ever  to  forget ! 

Accept  our  thanks,  gracious  Father,  that  we  have  accom- 
plished the  sacred  office  of  giving  to  our  beloved  and  honored 
chief  his  appropriate  resting  place  among  those  who  shared 
with  him  the  joys  of  victory  and  the  sadness  of  defeat  and  who 
followed  the  banner,  now  forever  furled,  with  a  fortitude  which 
no  reverse  could  shake  and  which  no  disaster  could  daunt. 

Here,  on  this  imperial  hill,  we  have  laid  him  down  beside  the 
river  whose  waters  sing  their  perpetual  requiem,  and  amid  the 
flowers  which  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  just  and  of  the 
land  where  death  never  withers  the  affections,  which  bloom  in 
beauty  and  fragrance  evermore. 

We  look  up  from  the  open  grave  to  the  open  heavens,  where 
Thou  dost  live  and  reign,  and  where  all  who  have  died  in  the 
true  faith  do  live  and  reign  with  Thee  in  glory  everlasting. 

In  this,  the  hour  of  their  freshly  awakened  sorrow,  O  Father, 
most  tender  and  loving,  in  the  plentitude  of  Thy  compassion, 
remember  and  comfort  Thine  handmaiden  and  all  dear  to  her. 
Thou  husband  of  the  widow  and  father  of  the  fatherless,  be 
Thou  their  strength,  their  song,  and  their  salvation. 

Lord  God  of  hosts,  we  beseech  Thee  to  sustain  and  cheer  the 
veteran  survivors  of  the  war,  while,  with  ever-diminishing  num- 
bers, and  ever-increasing  burdens  of  age  and  infirmity,  they 
await  their  final  discharge  and  final  recompense. 


49S  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Almighty  God,  author  of  peace  and  lover  of  concord,  now 
that  the  sorrows  and  desolations  of  war  have  been  for  so  many- 
years  exchanged  for  the  blessings  of  peace,  may  all  animosities 
be  buried  in  the  grave,  and  may  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  great 
land,  from  North  to  South,  and  from  East  to  West,  learn  more 
and  more  to  cherish  the  relations  which  unite  them  as  children 
of  one  Father  and  as  citizens  of  one  country !  May  mutual  re- 
gard for  each  other's  interests,  happiness  and  rights  become  the 
noble  law  of  national  life!  May  freedom  founded  on  justice 
and  guarded  by  constitutional  law,  with  religion  pure  and  un- 
defiled,  secure  to  our  whole  people  a  perpetual  heritage  of 
unity,  prosperity  and  peace,  and  to  God,  most  high,  will  we  give 
all  honor  and  glory  evermore.    Amen. 


At  the  Dedication  of  the  Confederate  Museum,  February 

2,2,  1896. 

Almighty  God,  Thou  Tivest  and  reignest  for  evermore,  and 
with  Thee  do  live  the  souls  of  all  who,  having  consecrated  their 
lives  to  Thy  service,  died  in  the  true  faith,  committing  their 
spirits  to  Thy  hands  and  their  memories  to  our  hearts.  By  Thy 
help  we  will  be  faithful  to  the  sacred  trust.  We  will  perpetuate 
the  story  of  their  virtue,  valor  and  piety  as  a  precious  legacy  to 
all  succeeding  generations.  We  gather  here  to-day  with  hearts 
subdued  by  the  tender  recollections  of  the  past,  and  with  devout 
gratitude  for  the  mercies  of  the  present  hour.  We  recognize 
Thy  kindness  in  permitting  the  noble  women  of  our  Southland 
to  renovate  and  beautify  this  building,  which  we  dedicate  with 
these  impressive  ceremonies  to  all  the  sorrow-shrouded  glories 
of  our  departed  Confederacy. 

We  come  on  this  day,  hallowed  as  the  birthday  of  the  Father 
of  his  Country,  and  by  the  inauguration  of  the  chieftain  who, 
being  dead,  yet  lives  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  followed  the 
banner  now  forever  furled.  We  dedicate  this  mansion  as  the 
shrine  to  which  all  right-minded  and  right-hearted  men  will 
gather  from  every  State  and  from  every  land  to  pay  their  hom- 
age to  exalted  worth ;  the  shrine  which  will  be  hallowed  by  men 
who  are  bound  to  us  by  no  tie  save  that  which  admiration  for 
such  worth  establishes  between  all  magnanimous  souls ;  the 
tie  which  will  never  be  sundered  while  the  great  heart  of  hu- 


Appendix. 


499 


'manity  throbs  in  sympathy  with  heroic  endeavor,  and  most  of 
all  when  heroic  endeavor  is  overwhelmed  by  defeat.  Here  we 
would  preserve  the  relics  and  the  records  of  a  struggle  never 
more  to  be  repeated,  and  never  to  be  forgotten. 

Our  Father,  we  cannot  forget  the  fiery  trials,  the  disasters, 
and  desolations  which  in  years  gone  by  caused  us  such  humilia- 
tion and  bitter  tears ;  but  we  gratefully  remember,  too,  the  for- 
titude, the  courage,  the  unfaltering  trust  in  Thee  which  charac- 
terized our  people  in  their  time  of  peril  and  bereavement ;  and 
now,  turning  from  the  strifes  and  sorrows  of  the  past,  we  reso- 
lutely face  the  future,  beseeching  Thee  to  grant  us  grace  and 
wisdom  to  make  that  future  prosperous  and  happy — an  era  of 
progress  in  all  that  enriches  and  ennobles  a  people  whose  God 
is  the  Lord. 

And  now,  our  Father,  amidst  the  festivities  of  this  hour,  we 
beseech  Thee  deeply  to  impress  upon  our  hearts  the  great  truth 
that  all  the  temporal  honors  and  glories  of  earth  are  worthless 
in  comparison  with  the  honor  which  thou  dost  confer  on  those 
who  are  loyal  to  Thee,  and  who  seek  the  eternal  glory  to  which 
thou  hast  taught  us  to  aspire. 

We  devoutly  thank  Thee  that  the  piety  of  the  great  leaders  of 
our  armies  was  the  flower  and  crown  of  all  their  virtues,  and 
nothing  now  fills  us  with  a  satisfaction  so  pure  and  with  a  grati- 
tude so  profound  as  the  remembrance  of  their  consecration  to 
Thee  and  their  supreme  devotion  to  Thy  service. 

May  these  great  lessons  be  impressed  anew  upon  our  minds 
and  hearts  by  Thine  honored  servant,  who  comes  to  address  us 
to-day,  and  may  it  please  Thee  to  hasten  the  coming  of  the 
time  when  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  great  land  may  be  brought 
more  and  more  to  cherish  the  relations  which  unite  them  as 
■children  of  one  Father,  and  as  citizens  of  one  country,  and  when 
freedom,  founded  on  constitutional  law,  and  religion,  pure  and 
undefiled,  shall  make  our  whole  land  happy  and  fill  the  whole 
world  with  peace ;  and  to  God,  most  high,  will  we  ascribe  all 
honor  and  glory  forever.    Amen. 


Memorial  Day,  Hollywood,  May  30,  1898. 

[The  last  of  his  many  prayers  on  Memorial  Day.'] 

Almighty  God,  we  would  consecrate  this  memorial  service 
with  the  reverential  and  adoring  homage  which  we  render  to 


500  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

Thee,  the  greatest  and  the  best  of  beings,  the  high  and  mightj 
Ruler  of  the  universe,  God  over  all,  blessed  for  evermore. 

Since  last  we  met  in  this  hallowed  place  we  recognize  the 
change  which,  in  Thy  mysterious  providence,  has  come  to  our 
commonwealth  and  common  country.  A  year  ago  we  gathered 
here  in  the  tranquillity  and  quietude  of  a  long  peace ;  now  we 
meet  amidst  war's  alarms,  and  as  we  once  more  part  with  sons- 
and  brothers,  we  are  reminded  of  the  sad  separations  of  long 
years  ago ;  separations  from  so  many  dear  to  us,  who  departed 
to  return  no  more;  separations  from  those  who  fell  in  the  de- 
fence of  kindred  and  home  and  all  that  made  life  desirable  and 
happy.  They  died  committing  their  souls  to  thee  and  their 
memories  to  us  who  survive  them.  By  thy  help.  Lord  God  of 
truth  and  justice,  we  will  be  faithful  to  the  trust ;  we  will  per- 
petuate the  history  of  their  deeds  in  story  and  in  song ;  we  will 
return  with  each  revolving  year  to  deck  the  green  tents  of  turf 
beneath  which  they  lie  with  flowers  which  remind  us  of  the  un-  ' 
fading  verdure  of  the  paradise  of  God ;  we  will  come  to  em- 
balm their  memories  in  our  hearts  with  a  veneration  too  high 
for  words  and  with  a  tenderness  too  deep  for  tears. 

Once  more  we  make  this  memorial  service  the  pledge  of  our 
undying  love  for  those  who  sacrificed  all  for  us,  and  though  the 
cause  for  which  they  contended  is  lost,  we  leave  to  impartial 
time  the  vindication  of  their  principles  and  the  perpetuation  of 
their  fame. 

And  now.  Lord  God  of  hosts,  remember,  we  beseech  Thee, 
the  young  men  who  are  filling  our  camps  all  over  the  land,  and 
the  sailors  who  are  fringing  our  flag  with  glory  on  the  sea. 

Give  victory  to  the  right,  and  hasten,  we  beseech  Thee,  the  re- 
turn of  peace  and  the  restoration  of  prosperity  in  every  part  of 
our  country,  from  North  to  South,  and  from  East  to  West. 

We  invoke  Thy  blessing  on  the  association  to  whose  pious- 
care  the  graves  of  our  sons  and  brothers  are  entrusted,  and  we 
give  Thee  thanks  for  all  they  have  accomplished  in  protecting 
and  beautifying  the  place  where  they  rest  in  peace. 

May  Thy  servant,  the  honored  Governor  of  this  common- 
wealth, who  comes  to  speak  to  us,  so  speak  as  to  kindle  afresh 
in  our  souls  true  love  and  loyalty  to  truth,  to  duty,  to  our  coun- 
try, and  our  God  ;  and  as  the  blessings  we  implore  descend  upon 
us,  we  will  ascribe  all  the  glory  to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 
Amen. 


Appendix.  501 

On  Opening  the  State  Democratic  Convention,  1889. 

The  earth  is  Thine,  O  Lord,  and  the  fuhiess  thereof ;  the 
world  and  they  that  dwell  therein.  Thou  hast  created  all  things 
and  carest  for  all  that  Thou  hast  created.  Thou  rulest  all  things 
and  rulest  all  things  well,  for  Thy  kingdom,  founded  on  wis- 
dom, justice,  and  righteousness,  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and 
Thy  dominion  endureth  through  all  generations. 

We  therefore  worship  Thee,  we  adore  Thee,  we  glorify  Thee 
as  God  over  all  blessed  for  evermore. 

Without  Thee  nothing  is  safe,  nothing  strong,  nothing  en- 
during. Conscious  of  our  entire  dependence  on  Thee  for  all 
that  makes  councils  wise  and  conduct  right,  we  feel  it  to  be  our 
first  duty  as  well  as  our  highest  privilege  to  unite  our  hearts  in 
prayer  for  Thy  gracious  aid  and  blessing. 

At  this  memorable  hour  in  the  history  of  our  commonwealth, 
when  all  patriotic  men  are  earnestly  asking  how  social  and  do- 
mestic order  may  be  maintained,  and  public  tranquillity  secured, 
and  Christian  civilization  perpetuated,  we  turn  to  Thee  for  light 
and  guidance.  We  recognize  Thy  goodness  in  permitting  Thy 
servants  to  assemble  here  for  the  discharge  of  the  high  duties 
intrusted  to  them.  May  they  enter  upon  the  consideration  of 
the  great  questions  which  are  to  occupy  them  with  minds  free 
from  prejudice  and  passion,  animated  only  by  the  desire  to 
know  what  is  true  and  to  do  what  is  right.  May  wisdom,  har- 
mony and  supreme  devotion  to  duty  characterize  all  their  de- 
liberations, and  may  Heaven's  blessings  so  crown  their  labors 
as  to  secure  and  advance  the  true  and  permanent  interests  of 
the  people  here  represented. 

Almighty  God,  let  Thy  benediction  ever  abide  on  our  beloved 
commonwealth ;  upon  its  Governor,  judges  and  magistrates ; 
upon  its  schools,  colleges  and  universities ;  upon  all  its  indus- 
trial pursuits ;  upon  its  agricultural,  mechanical  and  commer- 
cial enterprises ;  upon  every  effort  that  can  be  devised  for  the 
promotion  of  the  public  good,  that  our  cities,  villages  and  coun- 
try homes  may  all  be  filled  with  a  people  virtuous  and  happy, 
prosperous  and  free. 

Bind  together,  we  beseech  Thee,  in  one  great  fraternal  union 
all  the  States  of  this  republic,  and  may  the  inhabitants  of  this 
whole  land  be  brought  more  and  more  to  cherish  the  relations 
which  unite  them  as  children  of  a  common  Father,  and  as 
citizens  of  a  common  country,  and  to  God,  most  high,  will  we 
ascribe  all  honor  and  glory  forever.    Amen. 


502  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

On  Opening  the  Session  of  the  House  of  Delegates,  De- 
cember 4,  1 89 1. 
\07te  of  many  forms. '\ 

Almighty  God,  we  humbly  adore  Thee  as  the  King  eternal, 
immortal,  invisible,  God  over  all,  blessed  for  evermore.  We 
worship  Thee  as  the  God  of  our  fathers  and  as  our  God.  Thou 
hast  bestowed  on  us  all  the  faculties  by  which  we  may  know 
Thee,  and  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  serve  our  fellow-men. 
May  we  regard  all  our  endowments  as  so  many  trusts  for  which 
Thou  wilt  hold  us  accountable,  and  may  all  be  consecrated  to 
Thy  service  and  to  the  great  ends  for  which  thou  hast  bestowed 
them.  Make  us  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  every  duty ;  fearless 
in  meeting  every  responsibility.  May  we  walk  humbly  and  rev- 
erently and  obediently  before  Thee,  and  kindly  and  courteously 
and  charitably  toward  all  our  fellow-men,  and  so  speak  and  act 
as  to  maintain  a  conscience  void  of  offence  toward  God  and  man.. 

Guide  and  animate  Thy  servants  in  all  the  duties  of  this  day, 
and  of  all  the  days  on  which  they  shall  assemble  for  the  consid- 
eration of  the  great  interests  entrusted  to  them. 

May  peace  and  plenty  and  prosperity  prevail  through  all  our 
borders,  and  may  the  blessing  of  laws  wisely  framed  and  justly- 
executed  give  order  and  stability  to  our  government ! 

Let  Thy  benediction  rest  upon  our  whole  land  throughout  its- 
vast  expanse,  from  North  to  South,  from  East  to  West.  Lend 
Thy  powerful  aid  to  all  who  are  honestly  and  earnestly  striving 
to  vindicate  the  truth,  to  maintain  the  right,  and  to  establish 
justice;  to  all  whose  supreme  aim  is  to  perpetuate  the  institu- 
tions which  give  support  to  the  liberties,  the  rights  and  the- 
happiness  of  the  people. 

Draw  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  great  land  nearer  to  Thee  as. 
children  of  a  common  Father,  and  nearer  to  one  another  as  citi- 
zens of  a  common  country,  and  to  God,  most  high,  most  holy,, 
will  we  ascribe  the  honor  and  glory  for  evermore.    Amen. 


At  the  Inauguration  of  Governor  J.  Hoge  Tyler,  January' 

I,  1898. 

Almighty  God,  fountain  of  being  and  of  all  blessedness,  giver 
of  life  and  all  that  makes  life  desirable  and  happy,  accept  our- 
humble  homage.    To  Thee  we  owe  all  allegiance,  love  and  ser- 


Appendix.  503 

vice,  and  every  tribute  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  we  can  render 
Thee  at  this  memorable  hour. 

We  worship  Thee  as  the  God  of  our  fathers,  mindful  of  Thy 
goodness  in  bringing  them  to  this  land,  here  to  enjoy  the  bless- 
ings of  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  here  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
just  and  equitable  government,  from  which  we  have  derived 
our  prosperity,  happiness  and  power  as  a  people.  We  give  Thee 
thanks  that  Thou  hast  made  this  ancient  commonwealth  the 
mother  of  the  men  whose  wisdom  and  patriotism,  whose  virtue 
and  valor  have  been  illustrated  in  the  halls  of  legislation  and  on 
a  thousand  fields  of  conflict. 

Beneath  the  shadow  of  this  Capitol  we  behold  the  stately 
monuments  of  the  patriots,  sages  and  soldiers  whose  names  are 
among  the  brightest  and  purest  in  human  history,  and  whose 
memories  are  the  common  inheritance  not  only  of  the  citizens 
of  our  own  commonwealth,  but  of  all  whose  hearts  beat  in  sym- 
pathy with  exalted  worth  and  unselfish  devotion  to  freedom, 
truth  and  justice  throughout  this  great  land  from  North  to 
South  and  from  East  to  West. 

And  now,  at  this  auspicious  hour,  in  this  new  era  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  commonwealth,  we  offer  our  fervent  prayers  in 
behalf  of  Thy  servant  this  day  invested  with  the  ofifice  which  has 
been  adorned  by  the  long  line  of  illustrious  predecessors  who 
have  bequeathed  to  him  the  instructive  experience  of  their  suc- 
cessive administrations. 

May  the  God  who  guided  and  animated  them  in  the  discharge 
of  their  high  duties  be  his  God  and  sure  defence,  preserving  his 
health  and  life  and  crowning  that  life  with  loving-kindness  and 
tender  mercies,  and  enabling  him  so  to  fulfil  every  obligation  as 
to  make  his  term  of  service  one  of  personal  honor  and  public 
advantage. 

Remember  also,  we  beseech  Thee,  Thy  servant  who  to-day 
resigns  the  trusts  he  has  guarded  so  fearlessly  and  well.  May 
Heaven's  richest  blessing  rest  on  him,  upon  his  family,  and  upon 
every  effort  and  enterprise  that  can  make  his  future  career 
prosperous  and  happy ! 

May  Thy  blessing  abide  upon  our  Lieutenant-Governor ;  upon 
the  Senate  over  which  he  is  to  preside ;  upon  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates ;  upon  all  the  officers  of  our  State  government  and  upon 
all  our  people,  that  order  and  harmony,  prosperity  and  peace 
may  prevail  throughout  all  our  borders,  and  to  God,  most  high, 
will  we  ascribe,  as  is  most  due,  all  honor  and  glory  evermore. 
Amen. 


504  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

On  the  Opening  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railroad, 
Greeting  the  Arrival  of  the  First  Through  Freight 
FROM  THE  Ohio  to  the  James,  February  13,  1873. 

The  earth  is  Thine,  O  Lord,  and  the  fulness  thereof,  the  world 
and  they  that  dwell  therein.  Thy  throne  is  in  the  heavens,  but 
Thy  kingdom  ruleth  over  all.  Thou  art  high  and  lifted  up,  but 
not  elevated  above  regard  for  Thy  creatures. 

We  bless  Thee  for  Thy  kindness  to  the  children  of  men,  to 
whom  Thou  hast  given  the  earth  for  a  heritage,  and  filled  it  with 
innumerable  provisions  adapted  to  their  comfort  and  well-being. 
We  bless  Thee  for  all  those  processes,  providential  and  gracious, 
by  which  Thou  art  drawing  mankind  nearer  to  Thee,  and  nearer 
to  each  other  in  the  bonds  of  sympathy  and  love. 

We  give  Thee  thanks  for  the  gospel  of  Thy  dear  Son,  for  the 
institution  of  civil  government,  for  social  and  domestic  order, 
for  all  those  useful  arts  and  works  of  genius,  industry  and  skill, 
by  which  the  people  of  this  great  land  are  brought  into  inter- 
course with  each  other  and  made  to  feel  their  mutual  dependence 
and  relationship  as  children  of  a  common  Father  and  citizens 
of  a  common  country,  and  to  cherish  those  kindly  feelings  and 
strengthen  those  fraternal  ties  which  make  it  good  and  pleasant 
to  dwell  together  as  brethren  in  unity. 

And  now  that  thou  hast  permitted  us  to  meet  in  joyful  cele- 
bration of  the  completion  of  this  great  work,  which  marks  a 
new  era  in  the  history  of  our  city  and  commonwealth,  we  render 
to  Thee,  as  is  most  due,  our  humble  and  grateful  thanks.  While 
we  give  honor  to  those  who  have  planned  and  executed  it,  we 
magnify  Thy  goodness,  O  Lord,  who  hast  crowned  their  ardu- 
ous labors  with  success ;  and  we  invoke  Thy  blessing  to  rest 
upon  the  work  of  their  hands.  May  it  give  development  to  those 
rich  resources  with  which  Thou  hast  filled  the  hills  and  valleys 
of  our  land.  May  it  give  birth  to  new  industries,  to  new  hopes, 
to  new  prosperity,  to  new  gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  all  good ! 

Bless,  we  beseech  thee,  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  Houses  of  Congress.  Let  Thy  benediction  rest  on  the 
Governor  of  this  commonwealth;  upon  its  judges,  legislators 
and  magistrates ;  upon  the  mayor,  and  council,  and  public 
officers  of  this  city ;  upon  our  clergy,  churches,  colleges,  schools 
and  benevolent  societies ;  upon  this  regiment,  filled  with  young 
men  dear  to  so  many  hearts ;  upon  the  strangers  who  come  to  us 


Appendix.  505 

from  other  States,  to  whom  we  give  the  welcome  of  friends ; 
upon  all  associations  representing-  those  industrial  pursuits  and 
mechanical  arts  upon  which  our  prosperity  so  much  depends ; 
and,  finally,  we  beseech  Thee  ever  look  with  Thy  merciful  favor 
upon  our  entire  country  throughout  its  vast  expanse,  from 
North  to  South  and  from  East  to  West,  and  grant  that  it  may 
everywhere  be  pervaded  by  that  celestial  influence  which  purifies 
all  that  it  penetrates,  and  gives  immortality  to  all  that  it  ani- 
mates ;  and  unto  God,  most  high.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
will  we  ascribe  all  honor  and  glory  forever.    Amen. 


At  the  Dedication  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  Build- 
ing, December  28,  1893. 

Almighty  God,  with  humble  reverence  we  come  to  worship 
Thee  with  tender  and  grateful  memories  of  Thy  goodness  to  our 
fathers,  and  to  our  people  in  generations  past  and  gone.  We 
come  to  adore  Thee  for  the  blessings  of  the  present  hour,  and  to 
implore  the  continuance  of  Thy  gracious  favor  in  all  the  days 
that  are  to  come. 

It  has  pleased  Thee  to  honor  the  city  in  which  we  dwell  from 
its  earliest  history,  in  making  it  the  home  of  men  whose  private 
virtues  and  public  services  have  given  lustre,  not  only  to  the 
community,  but  to  the  commonwealth,  and  while  we  cherish 
their  memories  with  true  affection,  we  pray  that  we  may  have 
grace  to  walk  in  their  footsteps,  and  so  to  emulate  their  exam- 
ples as  to  maintain  and  transmit  the  principles  bequeathed  to 
us  as  a  precious  legacy  to  those  who  shall  succeed  us  when  our 
work  on  earth  is  ended. 

We  recognize  Thy  kindness  in  permitting  us  to  complete  the 
edifice  in  which  we  now  offer  our  grateful  homage,  and  which 
we  now  dedicate  to  Thee  as  the  home  of  all  noble  enterprise,  of 
justice,  order,  honor,  truth  and  charity. 

Conscious  of  our  entire  dependence  on  Thee  for  all  that  makes 
counsels  wise  and  conduct  right,  we  invoke  Thy  powerful  aid 
in  enabling  us  to  manage  all  the  interests  of  this  association,  so 
as  to  secure  the  great  ends  for  which  it  was  organized.  Give 
success,  we  beseech  thee,  to  every  industrial  pursuit,  and  to 
every  philanthropic  purpose  by  which  the  prosperity  of  our  city 
.may  be  advanced  and  perpetuated.    Fill  us  with  a  deep  sense  of 


5o6 


Moses  Drury  Hoge, 


our  responsibility  for  every  trust  committed  to  us,  and  above 
all  to  the  God  to  whom  we  owe  all  allegiance,  all  love  and  ser- 
vice. May  we  remember  that  nothing  which  is  morally  wrong 
can  be  commercially  right,  and  may  integrity  and  uprightness 
be  the  noble  law  of  all  our  aims  and  endeavors. 

Bless,  we  beseech  Thee,  the  officers  and  members  of  this 
Chamber.  Give  unity  and  wisdom  to  their  counsels ;  may  de- 
votion to  the  common  welfare  expel  all  personal  and  selfish 
aims  and  inspire  such  mutual  confidence  that  all  the  resources- 
at  our  command  may  be  combined  in  one  united  effort  for  the 
highest  and  most  lasting  good  of  the  whole  community;  and 
while  we  enjoy  the  benefits  and  the  blessings  which  flow  from 
such  supreme  devotion  to  duty,  we  will  ascribe  all  honor  and 
glory  to  God,  most  high,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.. 
Amen, 


At  the  Dedication  of  the  New  City  Hall,  February,  i6, 

1894. 

Almighty  God,  with  devout  gratitude  we  adore  Thy  good 
providence  over  our  city  from  the  beginning  of  its  history  to 
this  hour  of  happy  greeting  and  congratulation  on  the  comple- 
tion of  our  arduous  work.  Thou  hast  heard  and  answered  the 
prayers  which  ascended  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone,  and 
hast  preserved  from  fatal  harm  and  hurt  those  who  were  em- 
ployed in  its  erection ;  and  now  may  it  please  Thee  to  protect 
it  from  every  destructive  element,  and  long  may  these  walls 
stand  to  guard  our  municipal  interests  and  to  give  stability  to 
public  order.  We  recognize  in  the  arrangement  of  its  halls  and 
chambers,  from  foundation  to  capstone,  its  adaptation  to  the 
official  use  and  com.fort  of  those  who  are  to  occupy  it,  thus 
securing  the  attainment  of  all  the  important  ends  for  which  it 
was  designed.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  transition  from  the  dis- 
mal and  squalid  quarters,  hitherto  occupied,  to  the  light,  and  air, 
and  amplitude  of  this  spacious  structure — at  once  massive  and 
strong,  convenient  and  beautiful. 

Thou  hast  surrounded  it  with  a  cloud  of  witnesses.  From  its 
summit  we  look  down  upon  the  Capitol,  within  whose  walls  once 
gathered  the  patriots  and  sages  who  laid  the  foundations  of  our 
constitutional  liberty  and  independence.  We  behold  the  monu- 
ment of  the  man  whose  name  is  yet  the  brightest  and  best  in. 


Appendix.  507 

American  annals,  while  around  him  stand  the  heroic  forms 
which  make  their  silent  and  salutary,  but  stirring  appeal  to  all 
patriotic  souls.  Near  by  we  see  the  statue  of  the  Christian 
soldier  who  stood  as  a  stone  wall  on  the  bloody  front  of  battle, 
and  who  surrendered  only  to  death  a  soul  consecrated  to  duty 
and  to  God. 

From  the  same  summit  we  overlook  the  city  which  has  passed 
through  such  fiery  trials  and  unparalleled  disasters,  and  yet  all 
borne  with  a  fortitude  which  no  reverses  could  daunt,  and  with 
a  determination  which  no  calamities  could  discourage. 

And  now,  our  Father,  we  hail  the  dawn  of  a  new  day.  At  this 
auspicious  hour  we  come  to  rejoice,  not  only  over  the  comple- 
tion of  a  noble  building,  but  to  inaugurate  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  our  city. 

We  face  the  future,  not  with  presumption,  but  with  reverent 
trust  in  God.  With  memories  and  hopes  like  these,  we  now 
dedicate  this  hall  to  official  industry,  integrity  and  honor ;  we 
dedicate  it  to  enterprise,  progress  and  prosperity,  under  Thy 
favor,  guidance  and  protection,  O  God,  most  high,  most  holy, 
most  merciful.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.     Amen. 


At  the  Commencement  of  the  University  College  of 
Medicine,  May  26,  1898. 

Almighty  God,  we  humbly  adore  Thee  as  the  fountain  of  all 
being  and  blessedness.  Thou  hast  created  all  things  and  Thou 
carest  for  all  that  Thou  hast  created.  Thou  rulest  all  things,  and 
Thy  law^s  are  holy,  just  and  good.  We  bless  Thee  for  the  rich 
provision  Thou  hast  made  in  the  gospel  of  Thy  grace  for  the 
pardon  of  sin  and  for  the  healing  of  all  the  maladies  which  sin 
has  inflicted  on  the  souls  of  men.  We  thank  Thee,  too,  for  all 
the  subordinate  agencies  Thou  hast  provided  for  the  relief  ot 
suffering  and  for  the  preservation  of  life  and  health,  in  filling 
every  department  of  nature  with  antidotes  to  disease  and  pain. 
We  recognize  Thy  goodness  in  raising  up  and  qualifying  an 
order  of  men  whose  duty  and  delight  it  is  to  administer  these 
remedies,  and  for  the  establishment  of  institutions  for  the  train- 
ing of  those  w^ho  go  forth  from  year  to  year  in  this  ministry  of 
mercy  to  those  who  need  help  and  healing. 

We  invoke  Thy  rich  blessing  on  the  institution  whose  anni- 


5o8  Moses  Drury  Hoge. 

versary  we  celebrate  to-night.  Make  it  a  fountain  of  great  and 
permanent  good  to  this  city,  to  the  community  and  to  our  com- 
mon country.  Prepare  the  young  men  who  resort  to  it  for  the 
Hfe  that  lies  before  them  by  the  strength  that  comes  from  truth 
and  honor  and  stainless  integrity.  At  the  close  of  each  session 
send  forth  those  who  shall  be  richly  qualified  for  their  noble 
profession  by  sound  learning  and  supreme  devotion  to  duty. 
Grant  Thy  special  guidance  and  benediction  to  the  graduating 
class.  Give  them  success  wherever  their  lot  may  be  cast,  and 
may  their  future  career  be  one  of  such  distinguished  usefulness 
as  to  reflect  credit  on  the  founders,  the  patrons  and  the  pro- 
fessors of  this  institution. 

We  remember  one  who  is  absent  from  us  to-night.  Do  Thou 
be  pleased  to  remember  him — the  president  of  this  University 
College.^  Restore  him  to  health  and  strength  again,  and  may  he 
be  long  spared  to  be  a  blessing  to  our  commonwealth  and  entire 
country. 

Grant  us  Thy  gracious  guidance  in  all  the  exercises  of  this 
liour,  and  make  it  a  happy  and  memorable  hour  because  of  thy 
favor  and  blessing ;  and  to  God,  most  high,  will  we  ascribe  all 
honor  and  glory,  evermore.    Amen. 


At  the  Administration  of  the  Bread  at  the  Last  Joint 
Communion  Service  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of 
Richmond  During  His  Life,  January  2,  1898. 

O  Father  of  mercies  and  God  of  quickening,  renewing,  com- 
forting, sanctifying  grace,  who,  upon  man's  transgressing  Thy 
commandment,  didst  not  leave  him  to  the  sad  consequences  of 
his  apostasy,  but  as  a  Father,  tender  and  loving,  didst  visit  him 
in  compassion,  opening  to  him  the  door  of  faith  and  repentance, 
and  in  the  fulness  of  time  sending  Thine  own  Son  in  the  like- 
ness of  sinful  flesh,  by  the  obedience  of  His  life  to  satisfy  the 
law's  demands,  and  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself  to  take  away  the 
law's  curse,  and  by  His  death  on  the  cross  to  redeem  the  world ; 
O  Thou  who  doest  all  things  to  bring  us  again  to  Thee,  that  we 
may  be  partakers  of  the  divine  nature  and  eternal  glory,  blessed 
be  Thy  name  in  every  mention  and  in  every  memorial  of  it.  O 
Son  of  God — Son  of  Man — Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  book 

1  Dr.  McGuire,  who  was  sick  at  the  White  Sulphur  Springs. 


Appendix.  509- 

and  open  the  seals  thereof,  for  Thou  hast  redeemed  us  by  Thy 
blood,  and  Thou  art  worthy  to  receive  power  and  riches,  and 
strength  and  honor,  and  glory  and  blessing,  now  and  evermore. 

We  are  not  worthy  to  come  under  Thy  roof  or  to  eat  the 
crumbs  which  fall  from  Thy  table,  but  Thou  hast  brought  us 
into  Thy  banqueting  house.    O  let  Thy  banner  over  us  be  love ! 

Thou  didst  become  the  Son  of  man  that  we  might  become  the 
sons  of  God.  Give  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  the  assurance  of  our 
adoption,  and  give  us  the  evidence  of  it  by  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  in  our  hearts,  and  by  enabling  us  to  live  for  Him  who  died 
for  us.  Wash  us  from  our  sins  and  we  shall  be  whiter  than 
snow.  Restore  unto  us  the  joy  of  Thy  salvation  and  uphold  us 
Avith  Thy  free  spirit. 

Blessed  Lord,  by  this  holy  ordinance  Thou  art  coming  to  us 
as  Thou  didst  to  Thy  disciples  when  Thou  didst  show  them  Thy 
wounded  hands  and  Thy  feet  pierced  with  the  nails — the  hands 
that  were  ever  laden  with  benediction,  the  feet  that  bore  Thee 
wearily  as  Thou  didst  go  about  healing  the  sick  and  comforting 
the  sorrowing  and  pardoning  the  penitent. 

With  Thy  bleeding  hand  Thou  art  knocking  at  the  door  of  our 
hearts.  O  make  us  deeply  penitent  for  all  our  sins,  and  as  we 
look  upon  Him  whom  our  sins  have  pierced,  may  we  mourn  with 
godly  sorrow,  and  in  view  of  the  broken  body  may  we  come 
with  broken  and  contrite  hearts,  such  as  Thou  wilt  not  despise, 
and  may  Christ  manifest  Himself  through  these  consecrated 
emblems  until  He  becomes  within  us  the  hope  of  glory. 

Bless  all  who  shall  unite  in  the  celebration  of  this  holy  ordi- 
nance ;  Thy  ministering  servants,  the  office-bearers  in  Thy 
church,  and  all  Thy  people.  Bind  us  together  in  the  bonds  of 
Christian  affection.  Give  us  the  blessing  of  brethren  dwelling 
together  in  unity,  as  partakers  of  one  bread,  as  sharers  in  one 
hope,  as  preparing  to  live  together  in  one  happy  and  eternal 
home.  May  ours  be  the  communion  of  saints,  that  at  last  we 
may  join  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect — the  general  as- 
sembly of  the  church  of  the  firstborn  in  Thy  kingdom  above, 
where  we  shall  celebrate  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb.  Set 
apart  to  this  holy  use  so  much  of  these  elements  as  shall  be  em- 
ployed in  the  administration  of  this  sacrament,  and  set  apart  us 
to  lives  of  new  obedience  and  entire  consecration ;  and  to  God, 
most  high,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  will  we  ascribe  all 
honor  and  glory,  evermore.    Amen. 


INDEX. 


-Academy  of  Music  (N.Y.),  sermons 
at  123,  124.  226. 

Agnew,  D.  Hayes  315. 

Aldershot,  review  at  $72- 

Alexander,  Addison  225. 

Alexander,  Archibald,  visit  to  James 
Hoge  5 — influence  of  Moses  Hoge 
on  6 — President  Hampden-Sidney 
College  7 — Moses  Hoge's  last  visit 
to  9 — preaching  132. 

Alexander,  Henry  C,  letter  on  Wil- 
liam Hoge  223,  224 — death  367. 

Alexander,  Henry  M.  226,  227. 

Alexander,  James  W.  103,  132,  206, 
225. 

Alliance  of  Reformed  Churches,  ori- 
gin 281 — debate  on  281 — Edin- 
burgh Council  289 — London  325 — 
Glasgow  369. 

Ancestry,  value  of  17 — of  Hoges  3 — 
of  Lacys  15. 

Anderson,  Samuel  J.  21. 

Arbitration,  international  348,  378. 

Assembly's  Home  and   School  378, 

379- 
Athens,  O.,  removal  of  S.  D.  Hoge 
to  26— boyhood  of  M.  D.  H.  in  31, 
32— M.  D.  H.  leaves  32— W.  J.  H. 
educated  at  54 — professor  in  108 — 
M.  D.  H.  visits  128. 

Backus,  John  C,  letter  from  181. 

Baker,  Judge  167. 

Ballard,  Addison  108. 

Ballard,  Mrs.  Julia  P.,  letter  to  in. 

Ballentine,  Elisha  27,  31. 

Ballentine,  Henry  31. 

Baltimore,     call      to      258 — summer 

preaching  355 — W.  J.  H.  in  113. 
Barnett,  E.  H.  387. 
Baxter,  Dr.,  described  63. 
Bayard,  T.  F..  Dr.  Hoge  meets  244 — 

entertains    Dr.    Hoge   372  —  letter 

from  S77 — tribute  to  387,  388. 
Belfast,  preaching  in  376. 
Benjamin,  Judah  P.  167 — letter  from 

174 — English  interest  in  373. 
Beresford-Hope,  A.  J.  B.,  letter  from 

M.  D.  H.  to  271 — letter  from  272 

— M.  D.  H.  meets  291. 


Beth  Ahaba,  congregation  362. 

Bibles,  destitution  of  in  Conf.  army 
168— letter  of  W.  J.  H.  on  169— 
mission  of  M.  D.  H.  to  secure  171 
— grant  of  by  B.  and  F.  B.  S.  175, 
485— grant  of  by  A.  B.  S.  181— 
captured  195 — letters  of  Conf. 
generals  about  196,  197. 

Bible  Society,  of  Virginia  171,  348 — 
Confederate  172 — American  169, 
181— B.  and  F.  175,  485. 

Blockade  running  172,  175,  192. 

Boston,  blockade  Bibles  195 — address 
in  328. 

Branch,  Robert  C.  41,  43. 

Broadus,  J.  A.  367  (see  also  oppo- 
site p.  i). 

Brookes.  James  H.  20,  258 — letter 
from  260 — death  369. 

Brooklyn,  call  to  124. 

Brown,  William,  buys  Central  Pres- 
byterian 118 — resides  at  Dr.  Hoge's 
166 — letter  of  M.  D.  H.  to  173— 
ecclesiastical  influence  246 — dele- 
gate to  Edinburgh  Council  289 — 
death  367. 

Brown,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  H.,  useful- 
ness 166 — letter  from  188— care  of 
Dr.  Hoge's  house  301 — tribute  to 
476. 

Bryan,  Joseph,  address  of  359. 

Bryce,  James  S7S- 

Buller,  Gen.  Sir  Redvers  374. 

Burdett-Coutts,  Baroness  273- 

Burton,  Mrs.  Agnes,  letter  to  255. 

Call  to  ministry  62. 

Calls  for  M.  D.  H.,  from  country 
churches  72,  73,  74 — from  Mobile 
73 — from  Richmond  74,  76.  82 — 
from  Brooklyn  123,  124 — from 
Washington  130 — to  the  presi- 
dency of  Hampden-Sidney  and 
Davidson  Colleges  130 — from  Lex- 
ington. St.  Louis,  Nashville,  Mem- 
phis, Baltimore  258 — Philadelphia 
315- 

Calvinism,  Moncure  Conway  on  290 
— Dr.  Hoge  on  291,  371 — creed  and 
character  413. 


512 


Moses  Drury  Hoge. 


Camp  Lee  148,  153,  164,  385,  484- 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  Dr.  Hoge  meets 
179 — on  religion  438. 

Carrington,  Charles  S.  52. 

Central  Presbyterian,  Moore  and 
Hoge  118 — editorials  commended 
138— William  Brown  118 — account 
of  Dr.  Hoge's  mission  171 — Rich- 
ardson and  Southall  52 — occa- 
sional editorials  of  Dr.  Hoge  264 
— speech  in  synod  on  349 — James 
P.  Smith  389. 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  dedication 
prayer  505. 

Charleston,  S.  C,  blockade  run  from 

173- 

Chase,  Chief  Justice  242,  490. 

Chesapeake  and  Ohio,  prayer  at 
opening  504. 

Church  courts,  dignity  349 — report- 
ing 349- 

City  Hall,  dedication  prayer  506. 

Clay,  Henry  94. 

Colonization,  African  137  —  of 
churches  311. 

Colored  race  (see  also  slavery)  evils 
of  sudden  enfranchisement  234, 
239  —  problem  of  evangelization 
247 — Dr.  Hoge's  proposal  323. 

Confederacy,  characteristics  of 
struggle  146 — failing  fortunes  230 
— downfall  232  —  demoralization 
following  233. 

Confederate,  soldiers  146,  457,  461 — 
memories  270,  445  —  monuments 
458 — museum,  dedication  prayer 
498. 

Copenhagen,  address  at  318,  452. 

Connaught,  Arthur,  Duke  of  374. 

Conway,  Moncure  D.,  letter  of  290. 

Cook,  James  E.  314,  395. 

Cornell  University  353. 

Cox,  S.  S.  198. 

Curry,  J.  L.  M.,  address  338. 

Cushing,  Jonathan  39,  41. 

Dabney,  Robert  L.,  class-mate  of  Dr. 
Hoge  52 — letter  on  secession  140 — 
address  on  New  South  403 — West- 
minster celebration  380 — Dr.  Hoge 
at  grave  of  380. 

Davidson  College,  elected  president 
of  130. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  Dr.  Hoge's  ac- 
quaintance with  167,  463 — address 
on  353,  463 — prayer  at  interment 
of  352,  496. 


Dedication,  of  Second  Church  loi — 
hymn  loi— of  churches  by  M.  D. 
H.  244,  329,  386— prayers  493,  498, 
505,  506. 

Delegates,  prayer  opening  House  of 
502. 

Democratic  convention,  prayer  open- 
ing 501. 

Draper,  John  W.  41. 

Dreever,  Mrs.  Lizzie  301. 

Duelling  96. 

Edinburgh  Council  289. 

Empie,  Adam  92,  480. 

Europe,  John  Blair  Hoge's  travels  in 
12— first  visit  of  M.  D.  H.  (1854) 
115— compared  with  America  117, 
292 — second  visit  (i862-'3)  175 — 
third  (1877)  291— fourth  (1878) 
292 — fifth  (to  the  East,  1880)  293 
—sixth  (1884)  318— seventh (1888) 
325  —  eighth  unrecorded  —  ninth 
(1896)  369 — advantages  of  travel 
in  489. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  New  York 
268— Copenhagen  318,  452 — Bos- 
ton 328. 

Evangelists,  professional  311. 

Evidences  of  Christianity,  University 
Lectures  103. 

Ewell,  B.  S.,  Prof.  H.  S.  C.  42— at 
Seven  Pines  157 — friendship  of 
167 — death  367. 

Ewell,  Richard  S.  167 — letter  from 
196. 

Family  Religion,  address  on  452. 

Farrar,  F.  R.,  quoted  53,  74. 

Fasting  and  prayer,  day  of  230. 

Field,  Henry  M.,  letter  of  Dr.  Hoge 
to  244,  letter  from  277. 

First  Regiment  Va.  Volunteers  348, 
364- 

"Fraternal  Relations,"  action  of  Sa- 
vannah Assembly  277 — of  Brook- 
lyn Assembly  278 — Chicago  279. 

Garfield,  Pres.,  assassination  315 — 
Dr.  Hoge's  address  on  418 — ser- 
mon on  death  315. 

General  Assembly.  Richmond  (1847) 
97— St.  Louis  275 — Savannah  276 
— New    Orleans    287  —  Charlotte 

379- 
Ghiselin,  Charles,  quoted  297. 
Gilliad,  John,  letter  from  180. 
Gilliam,  M.  M.  302. 


Index. 


513 


Gilliam  (nee  Hoge),  Mrs.  Mary  R., 
birth  108  —  care  of  brothers  251, 
302 — marriage  302  —  at  father's 
deathbed  393. 

Glasgow  Council  369. 

Graham,  Samuel  L.,  M.  D.  H.  joins 
church  under  50 — Prof,  in  U.  T.  S. 
63. 

Greenleaf,  Jonathan  66,  67. 

Greenleaf,  John  Parsons,  friendship 
of  M.  D.  H.  65— tragic  death  66— 
cherished  memory  66,  67,  68,  69, 
190,  236. 

Greenleaf,  Mrs.  Mary  Parsons, 
quoted  35 — bereavement  66 — let- 
ters to  67,  68,  69,  71,  115,  123,  124, 
127,  128,  129,  175,  187,  190,  235, 
236,  237,  238,  239,  252,  254,  305, 
306,  329 — Mrs.  Hoge  to  193,  251— 
Miss  Bessie  Hoge  to  251,  252. 

Gretter,   Michael  85,   126. 

Grigsby,  Hugh  Blair,  cited  on  origin 
of    Lacys    15  —  quoted    on    Drury 
Lacy  17 — on  Elizabeth  Lacy  (Mrs. 
Hoge)   23. 
Gurney,  J.,  letters  from  177,  183. 

Guthrie,  Donald  382,  384,  395,  416. 

Haldane,  Alex.   183. 

Hall,  John,  address  at  forty-fifth  an- 
niversary 332— tribute  to  387. 

Hampden-Sidney  College,  founda- 
tion of  39— early  presidents  39 — 
social  and  intellectual  environment 
21— M.  D.  H.  on  the  value  of  38— 
Moses  Hoge  president  7 — Drury 
Lacy  vice-president  17 — Samuel  D. 
Hoge  graduates  at  15— professor 
in  25 — Moses  Drury  Hoge  born  at 
25— graduates  at  52^tutor  in  54 — 
early  advertisement  of  42 — ad- 
dress at  39,  294,  403— trustee  of 
348 — elected  president  of  130. 

Harrison,  Dabney  Carr  152,   153. 

Harrison  Peyton,  W.  J.  H.  marries 
daughter  of  119— on  "Abolition" 
136 — quoted  181. 

Harrison,  Peyton  R.  152,  209. 

Hastings,  Fred.,  letter  from  292. 

Havelock,  General  375. 

Hawes,  Elias  36. 

Hawes,  Samuel  P.  85. 

Hill,  D.  H.,  at  Seven  Pines  161 — on 
Jackson  oration  274. 

Hodge,  Charles,  interviev/  with  267. 

Hoge,  origin  of  name  i,  2 — of  family 
3- 


Hoge  Academy  348. 

Hoge,  Addison,  see  Hogue. 

Hoge,  Alexander  Lacy,  born   125 — 

death  of  187— described  188. 
Hoge,  Anne  Lacy,  see  Marquess. 
Hoge  (nee  Hume),  Mrs.  Barbara  3. 
Hoge,   Miss   Bessie,   born  83— letter 
to    154 — sent    North   234 — care   of 
mother  251 — letters  from  251,  252 
— becomes  an  invalid  302 — assist- 
ance to  father  302 — restored  thro' 
Dr.  Agnew  315 — at  forty-fifth  an- 
niversary 332. 
Hoge   (nee  Poage),  Mr.s.  Elizabeth 

9- 
Hoge,  Elizabeth  Lacy,  see  Irvine. 
Hoge,  Elizabeth  Poage  (changed  to 
Elizabeth  LaCy),  born  25 — quoted 
on  home  in  Athens  32 — unites  with 
church  58— quotes  letters  from  M. 
D.  H.  58— letter  from  M.   D.  H. 
on  failing  health  83 — death  84. 
Hoge    (nee   Lacy),    Mrs.    Elizabeth 
R.,  parentage  20  —  Mr.   Grigsby's 
description  23 — marriage  23 — wid- 
owed 28,  452 — Mrs.  Marquess'  de- 
scription  29 — removes   to   Colum- 
bus 32 — to  Granville,  O.,  31,  40 — 
to  Zanesville,  O.,  54— to  Gallatin, 
Tenn.,  54— letters  of  M.  D.  H.  to 
45,  47,  48,  49,  50,  51,  54— last  visit 
to  57— death  of  58 — son's  tribute 
to  58,  59- 
Lloge,  Hampden,  born  251 — brought 
up   by   sister  302 — with   father  at 
Atlantic  City  386. 
Hoge,  James  (i)  5. 
Hoge,  James  (2),  General  5. 
Hoge,  James  (3),  Dr.,  settlement  in 
Ohio  II— quoted  26 — M.  D.  H. 
visits   128 — on  slavery  136. 
Hoge,  John  Blair  11 — travels  in  Eu- 
rope    12 — eloquence     13 — ministry 
in  Richmond  13— MS.  Life  of  his 
father  13. 
Hoge,  John  Blair  (2)  13. 
Hoge,  Mary  R.,  see  Gilliam. 
Hoge,  Mary  S.,  see  Wardlaw. 
Hoge,  Moses,  birth  6 — education  7 — 
pastor  at  Shcpherdstown  7 — presi- 
dent H.  S.  C.  7 — first  professor  in 
Synod's  Theological  Seminary  8— 
work  and   character  7-10  —  death 
and  burial  in  Philadelphia  9 — John 
Randolph's    opinion    10  —  Charles 
Hodge  on  267. 
Hoge,  Moses  A.  11,  97,  108. 


514 


Moses  Drury  Hoge. 


Hoge,  Moses  Drury,  born  25--first 
recorded  words  29 — early  traits  29 
— removes  to  North  Carolina  32 — 
illness  on  journey  33 — life  in  New 
Bern  34 — early  friends  35,  36 — in- 
fluence of  Uncle  Drury  37 — S.  S. 
teacher  37 — visits  mother  40 — en- 
ters college  40 — preparation  and 
habits  43  —  religious  convictions 
45 — teaches  in  North  Carolina  47 
— unites  with  the  church  51 — re- 
turns to  college  51 — classmates  52 
— first  public  speech  52 — graduates 
with  first  honor  52 — valedictory  53 
— elected  tutor  54 — interest  in  pub- 
lic men  55 — reunion  in  Gallatin  57 
— death  of  mother  58 — call  to  min- 
istry 61,  62  —  enters  Theological 
Seminary  63  —  friendship  for 
Greenleaf  65,  67,  68,  69 — courtship 
71 — calls  72,  73,  473 — licensure  74, 
473 — early  preaching  74 — settles  in 
Richmond  76 — marriage  82,  329 — 
ordination  82,  474  —  birth  of 
daughter  83 — trip  to  Canada  84 — 
preaching  and  preparation  85 — 
meets  Webster  91 — and  Clay  94 — 
White  Sulphur  93 — gives  up  sal- 
ary 99 — schools  98,  100 — Univer- 
city  lectures  103  —  moderator  of 
synod  114  —  foreign  travel  115 — 
D.  D.,  H.  S.  C.  iiS— Central  Pres- 
byterian 118 — visit  to  North  Caro- 
lina 119 — bereavement  120 — illness 
121 — birthday  reflections  121 — call 
to  Brooklyn  123 — visits  New  York 
124 — birth  of  son  125  —  changes 
129  —  call  to  Washington  130 — 
other  calls  130 — views  on  slavery 
136 — on  union  138 — on  secession 
144-147 — chaplaincy  of  Camp  Lee 
148,  483 — of  Congress  149 — battle 
of  Seven  Pines  157  —  mission  to 
England  171,  484 — runs  blockade 
i73i  175 — secures  grant  of  Bibles 
i76^plot  for  arrest  186 — death  of 
child  186 — returns  home  189,  190 
— runs  blockade  191 — arrival  home 
194  —  lectures  194  —  letter  on 
brother's  death  215- — brother's 
children  221,  238 — proposes  fast- 
day  230 — retires  from  Richmond 
232 — sorrow  and  humiliation  235 — 
hope  and  resolve  240 — educational 
work  241 — RicJiiiiond  Eclectic  241 
— Northern  friends  237,  242,  244 — 
Hymn-book   and    Directory   246 — 


Hoge,  Moses  Drury  {Continued). — 
appointed  to  visit  British  churches 
247 — work  for  colored  people  247 
• — laid  aside  248 — wife's  illness  250 
— bereavement  254  —  calls  258 — 
enlargement  261  —  growth  in 
preaching  263 — at  Princeton  266 — 
Evangelical  Alliance  268 — Stone- 
wall Jackson  oration  269,  425 — 
Moderator  of  Assembly  275 — on 
"fraternal  relations"  276— on  Pres- 
byterian Alliance  281 — Publication 
disaster  287  —  Edinburgh  Council 
289  —  Victoria  Institute  291  — 
travels  with  Dr.  McGuire  292 — in 
the  Holy  Land  293 — college  ad- 
dresses 294 — lectures  295 — height 
of  power  296 — pastoral  work  307 
— mission  work  312 — call  to  Phil- 
adelphia 315 — addresses  on  Presi- 
dent Garfield  418,  315  —  travels 
with  son  318 — Copenhagen  Alli- 
ance 318  —  LL.  D.,  Washington' 
and  Lee  319  —  address  at  319 — 
preservation  of  history  321 — Pres- 
byterian Centennial  321 — commit- 
tee on  union  321 — dedications  329 
• — Forty-fifth  anniversary  332 — ad- 
dress at  344 — multiplied  responsi- 
bilities 348 — Davis  address  353, 
463 — prayer  at  interment  352,  496 
• — desire  for  relief  354 — financial 
losses  354— fiftieth  anniversary  61, 
357 — addresses  on  360,  363,  366, 
47i^continued  vigor  368 — Glas- 
gow Council  369 — address  at  370 
—visit  to  Mr.  Bayard  372 — Mr. 
Sinclair  376 — urged  to  write  rem- 
iniscences 377  —  Princeton  Uni- 
versity degree  378 — Charlotte  As- 
sembly 379 — Westminster  address 
379,  381- — illness  385— visit  to  Elk- 
ins,  W.  Va.,  386 — preaches  again 
387 — mortal  accident  390 — made  a 
Mason  391  —  message  to  church 
391 — mental  eclipse  392 — light  in 
darkness  393 — death  394 — funeral 
395  —  memorial  service  416 — ap- 
pearance 56,  289,  290,  316.  400, 
419 — voice  56,  274,  419 — readiness 
402 — preparation  85,  263,  405 — 
capacity  for  work  356  —  prayers 
408,  491  —  humor  409  —  sympathy 
and  self-control  410,  413 — interest 
in  children  84,  165,  410 — charity 
411  —  faults  415  —  language  407, 
419 — scholarship  43,  86,  407,  419 — 


Index. 


515 


Hoge,  Moses  Drury  (Continued). — 
spirituality  87,  414.  423— creed  86, 
290,  310,  413 — position  in  Church 
and  State  415,  417 — letters  of,  see 
under  names  of  persons  addressed. 

Hoge,  Aloses  D.  (2),  born  133— 
study  and  travel  318— attendance 
on  father  385. 

Hoge,  Peyton  H.,  born  209  —  or- 
dained 312  —  letters  to  352,  368, 
372,  386 — last  visit  to  uncle  392. 

Hoge,  Samuel  Davies,  born  14 — re- 
ligious experience  14  —  education 
15 — licensure  15 — marriage  23 — 
ordination  24 — pastor  at  Culpeper 
24  — professor  at  H.  S.  C.  25— 
birth  of  son  Moses  Drury  25 — re- 
moval to  Ohio  25 — professor  at 
University  26 — journey  east  26 — 
home  life  27— disease  and  death 
28 — described  26. 

Hoge  (nee  Watkins),  Mrs.  Susan  9. 

Hoge  (nee  Wood),  Mrs.  Susan 
Morton,  ancestry  71 — engagement 
to  M.  D.  H.  72— marriage  82— 
commended  100,  163 — accompanies 


Hoge,  William  James  {Co)itinued)~ 
reavements  209 — ministry  in  Char- 
lottesville 152,  211— sketch  of  Dab- 
ney  Carr  Harrison  153 — plan  to 
secure  Bibles  168  —  in  Jackson's 
camp  182— call  to  Tabb  Street,  Pe- 
tersburg 212  —  chaplain  service 
212 — ministry  in  Petersburg  214 — 
illness  214 — "The  victory  won" 
215— Dr.  Moore's  tribute  22 — Dr. 
Alexander's  letter  223  —  letters 
from  M.  D.  H.  to  44,  88,  89,  96, 
98,  150.  151,  153,  156,  172,  178— 
letters  to  M.  D.  H.  126,  131,  133, 
151,  155-  168— letters  to  wife  118, 
119,  121,  122,  184,  210,  212. 

Hogetown,  Pa     3. 

Hogue,  Addison,  born  108  —  lives 
with  uncle  238 — professor  in  H. 
S.  C.  303 — nurses  uncle  385 — 
change  of  spelling  385— quoted 
383 — Preface. 

Hollywood  210,  360,  396. 

Hollywood  Memorial  Association 
358. 

Horse  55. 


Mrs.  Jackson  185— letters  of  M.  D.  j  Howard,  Mrs.  Jane  Schoolcraft  477 


H.    to    93,    121,    164,    186— letters 
from  193,  251 — character  249— ill- 
ness    251 — patience     under    251 — 
death  254. 
Hoge,  Thomas  15,  40,  50,  121,  145. 


Hume,  Barbara,  see  Hoge. 
Hunt,  Mrs.  Susan,  see  Hoge. 
Hunt,  Thomas  P.  9. 

Index  Rerum  88,  407. 


Hoge,  William,  came  to  America  3—  I  International  Lesson  Committee  328, 


married  Barbara  Hume  3 — descen- 
dants in  Pennsylvania  3 — in  Vir- 
ginia 4  —  burial  at  Opequon 
churchyard  4. 
Hoge,  William  James,  born  27 — 
boyhood  44,  198  —  enters  college 
54— unites  with  church  58 — mar- 
riage 108  —  professor  at  Athens 
108,  199 — death  of  wife  108 — 
licensure  and  ordination  108,  199 — • 
comes  to  Richmond  109 — brother's 
impressions  no  — called  to  co- 
pastorate  III  —  letter  on  revival 
III — Westminster  Church,  Balti- , 
more  113 — preaching  in  Delaware! 
199 — second  marriage  119 — Union 
Theological  Seminary  119 — visit 
to  North  Carolina  119 — visits  to 
brother  121,  122— Blind  Bartimeus 
201,  202— Brick  Church,  New 
York  123— character  of  ministry 
202 — political  preaching  203 — re- 
signs   pastorate    204  —  his    course 


348. 
Irvine    (nee  Hoge),   Mrs.   Elizabeth 

Lacy,   born    108,   lives   with   uncle 

238— marriage  303. 
Irving,  Francis  D.  52. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  M.  D.  H.  visits 
55 — admiration  for  138 — views  of 
future  quoted  239. 

Jackson,  "Stonewall,"  at  Dr.  Hoge's 
church  166 — remarkable  order  166 
—visit  of  W.  J.  H.  182— death  183 
— English  admiration  of  183,  272 — 
funeral  described  184  —  inaugura- 
tion of  statue  269,  404 — oration  at 
270,  425. 

Jackson,  Airs.  "Stonewall."  informed 
of  husband's  wound  185 — in  fu- 
neral car  184 — letter  from  273. 

Johnston.  Joseph  E.,  wounded  164 — 
visits  Dr.  Hoge  166  —  friendship 
167 — letter  from   197. 

Joint  communion,  prayer  at  508. 


vindicated  204 — farewell   208— be-  I  Jones,  Rev.  Harry  293,  375. 


5i6 


Moses  Drury  Hoge. 


Kelvin,  Lord  369. 
Kerr,  R.  P.  342,  416. 

Lacy,  origin  of  family  15. 

Lacy,  Beverly  Tucker  20 — chaplain 
service  182. 

Lacy,  Drury  Ci),  birth  16 — loss  of 
hand  16 — early  life  and  education 
16 — vice-president  H.  S.  C.  17 — 
gifts  as  preacher  17  —  clerk  of 
Hanover  Presbytery  18 — Modera- 
tor General  Assembly  19  —  death 
and  burial  in  Philadelphia  19. 

Lacy,  Drury  (2)  19,  20 — sympathetic 
character  18 — residence  of  M.  D. 
H.  with  32 — admiration  for  37 — 
accompanies  to  H.  S.  C.  51 — letter 
to  114. 

Lacy,  Elizabeth  Rice,  see  Hoge. 

Lacy,  Graham  G.  15. 

Lacy,  J.  Horace  (i)  20,  389. 

Lacy,  J.  Horace  (2)  20. 

Lacy,  Thomas,  captured  by  pirates 
15 — settled  in  Virginia  16. 

Lacy,  William  19,  20. 

Lacy,  William  S.  20,  381 — letters  to 
350,  351— Preface. 

Lacy-Hoge  Church  72. 

Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.   167,  179. 

Lane,  Edward  475. 

Law,  profession  of  478. 

Lawley,  Francis  C.  232,  271,  377. 

Laws,  S.  S.  381. 

Lectures,  at  University  of  Va.  103 — 
to  young  men  108 — platform  295. 

Lee  Camp,  Confederate  Veterans 
348,  361,  463. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  letters  from  196,  256 
— opposed  to  emigration  240 — 
Washington  College  241  —  death 
258. 

Lexington,  call  to  258. 

Leyburn,  John  73,  82,  367. 

Lidgerwood,  Wm.  Van  Vleck  378. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  election  of  no 
ground  for  secession  140 — policy 
of  coercion  criticised  143  —  death 
deplored  234. 

London,  delight  in  115 — residence  in 
(1863)  178— council  325 — last  visit 
to  372. 

Lovenstein,  William  362. 

McAden,  Hugh  4. 
McGuffey,  Dr.  62,  119,  211. 
McGuire,  Hunter  292,  392,  508. 
McKinney,  P.  W.  344. 


MacVicar,  Principal,  letter  to  382. 

Marquess  (nee  Hoge),  Mrs.  Anne 
Lacy,  born  25 — quoted  on  mother 
29 — on  M.  D.  H.  29,  30 — on  early 
home  32 — unites  with  church  46-— 
marriage  54 — letters  of  M.  D.  H. 
to  54,  59,  145,  291 — closing  inci- 
dents 367,  397. 

Marquess,  William  H.,  resides  with 
Mrs.  Hoge  31- — marriage  54 — let- 
ters from  on  Mrs.  Hoge's  death 
57,58. 

Marquess,  William  Hoge  329. 

Martin,  John  B.  85.  476. 

Mason,  James  M.  175,  484. 

Maxwell,  William  41,  43. 

Maxwell,  Mrs.  William  43. 

Memorial  address,  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary 471. 

Memorial  Day,  prayer  499. 

Memorial  service  416. 

Memphis,   call  to  258. 

Merrimac,  destruction  of  154. 

Miller,  John,  letter  from  266. 

Minnigerode,  Charles  253,  480. 

Mitchell,  Father  56. 

Mobile,  call  to  73. 

Moderator,  of  Synod  114 — of  Gene- 
ral Assembly  275. 

Moore,  Thomas  Verner,  pastor  First 
Church  97 — co-partnership  in  Cen- 
tral Presbyterian  118 — tribute  to 
W.  J.  H.  222 — funeral  of  Dr. 
Hoge's  child  193 — of  Mrs.  Hoge 
254 — tributes  to  349,  480. 

Moore,  W.  W.,  on  ancient  monu- 
ments 356 — quoted  371 — address 
at  memorial  service  417. 

Nail,  James  Hoge  11.  M 

Nail,  Robert  H.  11.  ■ 

New  Bern,  N.  C,  described  33 — life 

of  M.   D.   H.   in  34 — revisited  by 

37- 
New  Orleans  Assembly  287. 
New  York,  ministry  of  W.  J.  H.  in 

123,  202 — M.  D.  H..  sermons  and 

addresses  in  125,  268,  315. 
North    Carolina,    bojdiood    in    34— 

teaches  in  47 — visits  Synod  of  119. 

O'Ferrall,   Governor  365. 

Old  Market  Mission,  see  Richmond, 
Hoge  Memorial. 

Opequon  Church  4. 

Oratory,  contemporary  and  perma- 
nent influence  398,  399. 


Index. 


Osborne,  John  D.  306. 

Ould,  Robert,  conversion  245 — let- 
ters from  245,  265  — death  303— 
tribute  to  303,  478. 

Palestine,  value  of  travel  in  294.  488. 

Palmer,  Benjamin  M.,  letters  from 
248,  252 — letter  to  256. 

Palmerston,  Lord  369,  465. 

Parochial  schools,  sec  Schools. 

Patrick,  General  242,  243,  486. 

Peace,  duty  of  Christians  139 — see  \ 
Arbitration. 

Philadelphia,  address  at  267 — call  to 
315 — Presbyterian  Centennial  319. 

Plumer,  William  S.,  career  76 — in- 
vites M.  D.  H.  to  Richmond  -72— 
ordination  of  M.  D.  H.  82 — re- 
moval to  Baltimore  96— dedicates 
M.  D.  fi.'s  church  loi — address 
at  Chicago  278 — Edinburgh  Coun- 
cil 289— death  303— M.  D.  H.'s  tri- 
butes to  "](>,  481 — letters  from  M. 
D.  H.  to  89,  90,  91,  97,  98,  99,  104, 
107,  109,  no,  113,  117,  120,  137, 
138. 

Poage,  Elizabeth,  see  Hoge. 

Politics,  danger  of  factional  449 — 
scholarship  in  465. 

Prayers,  preparation  of  408 — on  spe- 
cial  occasions  491. 

Preaching.  W.  J.  H.  on  131— politi- 
cal 203^sensational  263 — of  W.  J. 
H.  described  199.  225,  226,  227 — of 
M.  D.  H.  described  263,  289,  290. 
292,  296,  297,  298.  417— method  of 
preparation  85.  263,  405. 

Publication  Committee,  located  in 
Richmond  153— M.  D.  H.  chair- 
man of  246,  348 — financial  disaster 
287 — relief   and   success   247,   287. 

Randolph.  Bishop,  address  at  forty- 
fifth  anniversary  339. 

Randolph.  John,  admiration  for 
Moses  Hoge  10 — M.  D.  H.  visits 
home  of  55. 

Randolph,  Theo.  P.,  friendship  244  , 
— letter  from  and  death  of  305 — 
mentioned  354.  ! 

Reconstruction  234.  239.  ■ 

Reid,  Charles  179.  i 

Revival  80,  iii,  113,  122.  310. 

Rice,    John    H.,    relation    to    U.    T.  i 
Seminary    7,    8 — called    to    Rich- 
mond 18— influence  on  Drury  Lacy 
19. 


517 


Rice,    Mrs.    Anne    18  —  quoted    on 

Drury  Lacy  17 — M.  D.  H.  boards 

with     40 — letter     from     75 — freed 

slave  of  137. 

Rice,  N.  L.  103 — preaching  described 

131- 
Richardson,  T.  G.  248. 
Richardson.  W.  T.  52. 
Richmond,    burning    of    theatre    18, 
482 — in   1845,   79 — religious  condi- 
tion in  1839,  80— cholera  90 — Con- 
federate Capital   150  —  attacks  on 
154.  155.  157 — relieved  165 — evacu- 
ation   232,    483  —  Capitol    disaster 
257.    482  —  character    of    ministry 
in  481. 
Richmond  Churches — 

Church  on  Shockoe  Hill  (Grace 
Street)  13. 

First  Presbyterian,  founded  18 
— Dr.  Rice  pastor  19 — Dr.  Plumer 
pastor  76 — M.  D.  H.  assistant  7(i 
— buildings  78 — General  Assembly 
96 — Dr.  Moore  pastor  97. 

Second  Presbyterian,  chapel  80 
— afternoon  services  81 — organi- 
zation 82 — ordination  of  M.  D.  H. 
as  pastor  82  —  first  session  85 — 
building  90,  98,  474— debt  99— ded- 
ication loi — revivals  in  113,  122, 
320 — enlargement  261,  474 — minis- 
ters from  475 — characteristics  346, 
486 — anniversary  gifts  365. 

Church  of  the  Covenant  311,  365, 
474- 

Hoge  Memorial  313.  365.  475. 
Ritchie-Pleasants  duel  94. 
Robinson,  Stuart  103.  281,  286,  289. 
Rodes.  R.  E.,  letter  from  196 — chap- 
lain service  212. 
Ruffner,  William  H.   103. 

Sample,  Robert  F.  356. 

Sampson,  Francis  L.  63,  103. 

Schools,  Parochial  98,  100,  107 — re- 
vival in  III. 

Schofield,  General  242,  486. 

Secession,  Dr.  Dabney  on  140 — of 
Virginia  reluctant  146  —  advised 
143 — cause  of  144,  146 — approved 
by  M.  D.  H.  146. 

Seddon,  James  167,  250. 

Seven  Pines  157. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  secures  hearing 
for  M.  D.  H.  175.  485— letter  to 
Mason  177— to  AL  D.  H.  177,  182, 
272. 


Moses  Drury  Hoge. 


Shedd,  W.  G.  T.,  letter  from  264. 

Shepperson,  J.  G.  52 — letter  from  64. 

Silliman,  Prof.  27. 

Sinclair,  Thomas  376. 

Slavery  135. 

Slover,  Charles  H.  37. 

Smith,  Benjamin  M.  61,  103. 

Smith,  Francis  H.  41. 

Smith,  James  P.  184,  389,  395,  416. 

Smith,  John  Blair  9,  16. 

Smyth,  Thomas,  letter  from  174. 

Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Monument,  ap- 
peal for  456 — dedication  of  494. 

South  Carolina,  secession  of  140. 

Southern  Presbyterian  Church,  or- 
ganization 246 — "fraternal  rela- 
tions" 276 — conferences  on  union 
321  —  position  as  to  colored 
churches  322. 

Stanley,  Dean  489. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.  148,  167. 

Stewart,  J.  Calvin  313,  395,  416. 

Stoddert,  William  367. 

Stuart,  J.  E.  B.,  letter  from  197. 

Terhune,  Edward  P.  66. 
Terhune.  Judge  67,  68,  69.  237,  306. 
Thomas,  James  D.  199. 
Thompson,   John   R.   85 — dedication 

hymn  474. 
Thornton.   John    144. 
Tucker,  John  Randolph  136. 
Turnbull,  L.  B.  314. 
Tyler,   J.    Hoge,   ancestry   5 — prayer 

at  inauguration  of  502 — presides  at 

memorial  service  416. 


Union,  love  for  138 — duty  of  South 
to  445. 

Union  Theological  Seminary,  origin 
8 — reorganization  of  faculty  63 — • 
M.  D.  H.  at  63— W.  J.  H.  profes- 
sor in  119 — visit  to  N.  C.  Synod  in 
behalf  of  119 — removal  to  Rich- 
mond 389. 

Unity,  Christian  277,  285,  339,  344, 
346. 

University  of  Virginia,  lectures  103 
— address  at  413. 

University  College  of  Medicine, 
prayer  507. 

Van  Zandt,  A.  B.  103 — letter  from 
106. 

Virginia,  secession  of,  see  Secession. 

Wallace,  A.  A.  367. 

Wardlaw  (nee  Hoge),  Mrs.  Mary 
209,  180  note,  411. 

Watkins,  Susan,  see  Hunt. 

Watkins,  Henry  E.  21,  82. 

Watson,  Thos.,  lines  on  New  Bern 
34— letter  to  M.  D.  H.  35— visit 
of  M.  D.  H.  367. 

Webster,  Daniel  92. 

Webster,   Sir  Richard  373. 

Western  insurrection  10. 

Wilmer,  Bishop  80. 

Wilmington,  N.  C,  191,  193. 

Wilson,  Bishop,  address  at  forty- 
fifth  anniversary  334. 

Wolseley,  Field-Marshal  374. 

Wood,  James  D.  71. 

Wood,  Susan  Morton,  see  Hoge. 


Date  Due 


02-03-0532180     MS 


Pfiriceion   Theological   Seminary-Spei 

lllllilllllllllllllllllllll" 


1    1012  01033  5810 


._J 


